The Beus Gang

Thank goodness I have a few years still

2012-01-20T19:37:00.002-06:00

Megs is at a birthday party tonight, and I find myself in a wierd mood. A lonely, almost depressed mood. It's not an overnight party. It's only till about 9 pm, and yet to me, it feels like she's been gone a loooooong time.
When I dropped her off I got super depressed. A huge "I can't part with you" feeling. I mean seriously. It's a birthday party for Pete's sake. It's not like I've never been without her before. I don't know whats going on with me. Maybe it's because I still have the boys, just not her, and that's why it's different? I don't know. All I know is that I'm just sick to my stomach.
What, oh what, am I going to do when she goes for, gasp, college??? Or even preschool????? For some wierd reason I'm okay leaving her with her brothers when I'm out on a date, but am freaking out with her gone out by herself. I think I have it. I think this is her growing up. She's only THREE. I really can't be having these feelings yet!
I need help.
At least we know I love my little girl. Maybe too much? :)

Derrick

2012-01-19T11:11:00.002-06:00

That Derrick-boy. I'm slightly obsessed with him.

He is seriously such a happy, mellow kid.

Derrick got his first tooth this week! It's on the bottom. I'd take a picture, but he won't let me near his face, not to mention you can barely see it.

Derrick is trying to walk. He can stand himself up in the middle of the room, with no help, and then take a couple steps. That's all though. Only a couple of steps, then he chickens out. I thought for sure he'd be my earliest walker, considering he was my earliest crawler, but no, he's fine taking his time.

Derrick loves Carter. He seriously lights up whenever Carter is in the room. He thinks Carter is the ultimate, and Carter is really good to him too.

Derrick has also discovered the wonder of balloons and balls this past week. He loves to crawl around after the balls and hit them, roll them, and throw them. Definitely a boy.

I'm so glad he's in my life. I can't believe he's almost one!! Ahhhh. I'm not ready for that yet.

Carter is SIX

2012-01-12T20:21:00.004-06:00

Can Carter really be six??? Oh my goodness, time flies WAY too fast. I tried telling him that maybe be should just stay five for a little longer, or even go back to four, but he wouldn't have it. He's been looking forward to this day for a loooooong time.

First off, Carter has been begging, and begging, and BEGGING for a birthday party. He's been telling me for weeks who he even wants to invite. Bo and I would always just nod, say uh huh, and change the subject because we were too busy with other things.

WELL..we decided to through him a surprise Super hero birthday party, and it was awesome. While he was gone at school we decked the house out with balloons, streamers, and super hero signs and logos all over. He had absolutely no clue that he was having a party that day. He thought his party was going to be on the weekend, so when he walked in, saw the decorations, and everyone shouted "surprise", he had the most shocked expression on his face. It was hilarious. He might have been kinda confused why all these kids were jumping out yelling at him dressed up as super heroes. So funny. I told him that he was having a surprise super hero party and that he needed to go change into a costume. He got really into it from that point on. ** side story... After sending him upstairs to go get his costume on, I went up and checked on him and found him putting on a construction worker costume. haha. I told him it was a SUPER HERO party. "Ohhhhh." So funny. He changed for a more suitable Spiderman costume.

There were about 10 kids in total, some from church and others from school. All of them had costumes on, and it was the best. They had pizza and juice for lunch, then they did a craft where they made fun masks, then it was upstairs for a super hero training course that Bo put together. It was pretty rad, if I say so myself. We had the boys crawling through a tunnel, running to a line to throw balls and knock down the bad guys (little action figures on a table), then they had to run to our little trampoline, jump on it, and while jumping off knock down our wall, made up of diaper boxes. Too many diaper boxes in this house.

It was a big hit with the boys.

After the training course it was back downstairs for "cake" and ice cream. Carter requested brownies this year, so I did brownies with toasted marshmallows and chocolate frosting on top. YUM. Another success. I should go professional. I did my best to try and draw a batman logo on the brownies. It was kind of sad looking, but the kids were impressed. At least they could tell what it was supposed to be. That counts for something, right?

Finally it was the long awaited present opening time. Carter scored big time, but I think the best gift of all was just the great time he had with all his friends. He was seriously on cloud nine for the rest of the day.

Happy Birthday Carter-bug! We love you so much. I can't believe you are six. We have enjoyed having you in our family and look forward to many more birthdays and years of fun!

The training course: There is the tunnel on the left, and you can see the wall of diapers on the right. Go Target!

Special Shout Out to my friend Lindsay. Bo had to bail on the party last minute because of a mandatory meeting he had forgotten about. sheesh. Lindsay stepped up on the ultimate friend list and came and helped out. No way was I going to be able to handle 10 boys all by myself. Thanks Linds!!

Yes, I know that it looks like all I ever wear is that green shirt, but one, it's an awesome and super comfy shirt, but two, and more importantly, that shirt has Spiderman, the Silver Surfer, Thor, and Wolverine on it, making it the perfect shirt to wear to a Super Hero party. I wore it on purpose for that party. I'm nothing if not a supportive mom. :) It helps that Bo thinks I look cute in that shirt.

Blowing out the candles. Unfortunately it took two breaths.

He'll be going professional in no time

2012-01-12T20:06:00.004-06:00

I signed Carter up for a basketball camp with a couple of his friends. Last Saturday was his first day, and I think I had just as much fun watching him as he did playing. It was so cute.

First off, he's never really handled a basketball. I know, sad, right? I'm quite embarrassed by it. Bo is more into soccer, and since I haven't played in YEARS, not to mention I'm a girl...yes we're getting to that stage, he just doesn't know this sport as well as the others. Oh well. This camp will change that!

They had they boys doing dribbling practices, passing activities, push ups, and drilled into them the correct way to hold the ball. It was fun watching about 20 little 4-6 year olds try dribbling these big ole basketballs in their tiny little hands.

Camp is every Saturday and goes for about 2 months. We are so excited!

Bo's Birthday Bash

2012-01-12T19:50:00.003-06:00

Last week Bo turned 31. He wasn't too pleased about that age. I told him he was the cutest 31 year old on the planet. I'm hoping that helped. Probably not though.

For Bo's birthday I offered to take him anywhere he wanted for his birthday. His choice? Chuck E Cheese. Really? Um, okay, sure. Works for me! I asked him if he was serious, to which he replied yes, and even went so far as to ask if we could even get a pizza there. Tough to please, that one. :)

Here's picture from the fun day. I think the kids appreciated it was Bo's birthday even more than Bo did.

Happy Birthday honey! We love you and are so happy you are who you are!

Chuck E Cheese came out to make an appearance, and Meg headed straight under the table. She does not like that rat AT ALL. It seriously took like 10min. of pleading, threatening, and bribing to finally get her to come out.

You can't see me, but I'm next to Megs pushing down the gas peddle for her.

Ridin' in style

Christmas

2011-12-30T19:12:00.002-06:00

We celebrated our Christmas in Indiana this year, and it was a wonderful, wonderful day. The kids woke up at about 7 and walked downstairs in wonder and excitement. I absolutely loved watching their faces as they looked at the presents, checked out their stockings, and just took it all in.

We all got spoiled. We got race tracks (all for Bo), doll houses, clothes, movies, legos, goodies, and more. Seriously spoiled.

It was a fun day. We missed our extended family, but still enjoyed just being together at our own home and making our own traditions.

It's a little late, but MERRY CHRISTMAS!

So stinkin' cute!

2011-12-30T19:06:00.002-06:00

Our ward Christmas party had karaoke. Megs saw a bunch of kids going up there to sing, and when asked by Bo if she wanted to join them, up she went.

They sang Jingle Bells, which is her ultimate favorite song, and much to our surprise, she actually sang! I was sure she would just get all shy, but nope.

Oh my goodness, she was so adorable up there.

I love that little girl!

Master "Gingerbread" House Makers

2011-12-30T18:44:00.002-06:00

A couple days before Christmas we had a fun evening making a gingerbread house. The kids had tons of fun, and I don't think the candy lasted more than 3 days on that house.

Derrick participated by supervising the construction and taste testing the graham crackers.

Jolly Days

2011-12-21T15:53:00.003-06:00

We are trying to make the most of this holiday season, so on Bo's day off last week we took the kids to the Childrens museum to hang out in the Jolly Days section again.

This time we went it wasn't nearly as crowded as it was after Thanksgiving, which was great. Meg had tons of fun playing with the play food, and Carter did this to-do list the museum had to earn elf ears. Of course we topped the day off with going down the slide again, because really, how can you resist a giant slide?

Oh yeah, this time the kids got to go meet Santa too. Meg wouldn't go within five feet of Santa, but she stilled yelled to him that he was her best friend. Carter and Derrick got to sith with Santa, Carter thinking it was great, Derrick wondering what was going on. All in all, a great day!

Meg frantically trying to get away from Santa. So funny.

Don't worry Santa, we've got it covered.

2011-12-11T20:59:00.003-06:00

So we watched Elf tonight as a family. Man, I love that movie. So funny. Will Farrell is awesome and just makes it perfect.
Anyways...as we're watching the bit with Santa in Central Park (towards the end), I asked Megan and Carter if they were so excited for Santa to come. Carter was, of course, super excited and literally bouncing on the couch. I love that he just is old enough to get really into it.
Megan's reaction to Santa was my favorite though. She said that she didn't need Santa to come to our house anymore because she already has a "little present under the tree." I explained to her that the one present was nice, but it was from Grandma Sandy, and wasn't she just so excited that Santa would bring her some more? Nope. She started getting very emphatic that she didn't want any more. She had her "tiny one." Oh that Megan girl. I heart her. She makes me laugh. You see, she's a girl, therefore anything small or tiny is a "baby" one, and therefore it is to be prized more. She's probably going to keep this true for jewelry in the future too, I can just see it.
I just thought it was funny. Carter would like the biggest present ever, Megan is happy with a little one.
Also, in Elf, the part where the midget and famous writer comes into the movie and Buddy is all excited about seeing an "Elf", Megan went off on how she doesn't like that elf. "He's a mean elf. I don't like mean elfs. I don't like clowns. I don't like them." I laughed so hard. I love that she snuck clowns in there too. Apparently she just can't let Halloween go.

Thanksgiving Week

2011-12-10T20:42:00.009-06:00

Thanksgiving week....yeah I'm just now getting around to blog about it. Whoops.

Bo took the whole week off and we made sure that we made the most of it!

Bo's dad, Kevin, flew in the Sunday before Thanksgiving and left the Friday immediately following. It was lots of fun showing him where we live and the kids loved hanging out with their grandpa. The highlight with Kevin was the zoo. They had so much fun walking around the practically empty park. The gang got a real close up view of the tiger. In fact, Megs had to actually take a step back from the glass because the Tiger was so close.

Our friends/cousins, the Heslops, came on Wednesday and stayed through Sunday. We (the adults) stayed up late everynight playing games and drinking yummy banana slush. Oh and having cheeseball. And muddy buddies. And pie. And.... yeah I think we all gained a few pounds, but it was sooooo worth it. :)

We took everyone to the Children's Museum on Friday, of course. It was really busy, but we had a great time going down the Yule Slide, playing in Jolly Land, and even getting glimpses of Santa!

The only downer of the whole week was that it went by way too fast.

Grandpa Kevin and the grandbabies.

Seriously, how cute is that baby boy!

Carter and Logan Heslop.

Dave and Sam Heslop. Sorry Syd, you didn't make the cut!

?

2011-12-08T22:21:00.002-06:00

Carter got really frustrated with me this afternoon because I couldn't figure out how to draw an invisible man for him.

My Oh-So-Humble Children

2011-12-06T10:32:00.002-06:00

Yesterday Carter wrote an I love you letter to a girl in his class. Curious, I asked him why. His response: "Because she says she loves me." Huh, okay. Good enough for five year old love, I guess. "Carter, is she pretty?" "Yes (shrugging), she thinks I'm handsome."

Today I told Megs she was pretty. "Yes, I know," was her response.

Latest happenings of our lives

2011-11-23T07:36:00.006-06:00

We haven't had any crazy happenings going on here, but every once in awhile my kids say or do things that I think, "this needs to go on the blog." So, without further ado, here's the latest with my family:

Carter: Every successful businessman or millionaire needs to get their start somewhere. Carter's happened about a week ago. He was supposed to be out helping Bo rake and gather leaves. Instead he comes in with a tin lunchbox full of leaves and asks me what one I like. Looking at the leaves, I pick one out, to which he replies, that'll be 78 cents. !! I put it back and told him I didn't want it that bad. hahaaa. If you think the story stops there, you're wrong. He then pulls a dollar and 25 cents out of his pocket and says that some of the neighbors bought some leaves! Seriously. My kid went around our little cul-de-sac selling LEAVES. And two poor saps took pity on my child and bought some, one even giving him a dollar.

Oh, can you imagine my embarrassment??? Oh my goodness. I told him no more selling leaves. If he wanted money, he could work for it here at home and I'd pay him. His response? He doesn't want money from me, he likes selling to the neighbors.

I told him that he needed to make cookies or something then. Now he bugs me all the time to make cookies. (picture me smacking my forehead)

After earning the money, Bo and I sat down and taught him about tithing. Yeah, he wasn't too keen on that. Maybe that'll stem his business ventures for awhile. I'm such a supportive mom. haha

Megs: Megan would now like to be called "Princess Cinderella." Or sometimes it's "Princess Megan Cinderella." Yesterday she even went so far as to say I should call her "King Megan Super Girl Princess." She tells me that I can be "Princess Long Hair." (Rapunzel). Thanks Meg. Flattered, really.

She also goes around dressed up in her Cinderella costume, crown and all. And if she can't be found in that, you better believe it's just because she's upstairs changing out of her footie pajamas only to put on another pair. She LOVES those pajamas. I had to buy two extra pairs because she wears them so much.

This princess thing has actually been wonderful because now, anytime Bo and I want her to do something, all we have to say is, "Princesses do..." and she does it! It's been WONDERFUL.

Example: "Megan, princesses ALWAYS have their hair combed and looking pretty." Bam, she's letting me style her hair.

"Megan, princesses ALWAYS are charming and polite, they don't whine and kick." Good behavior, check!

"Megan, princesses ALWAYS help clean up, they love having a clean house." And out pops the real Cinderella.

Repeat with meals, brushing teeth, you name it. Works like a charm.

We love that girl, and as cheesy as it sounds, she really is our princess.

Derrick: I'm thinking this kid is going to have that all or nothing personality. He used to maybe crawl up a couple stairs and then just stay there. Last week, however, he just decided he was going to climb to the top, and away he went, like a pro. Not cool. He thinks it hilarious and can now be found scrambling to the stairs, squealing and laughing, a huge grin on his face. I know I should get a gate, but I really don't want to mess with the drilling holes, the suction cups taking off the paint, and so on. Super vain, I know. So now pretty much all of us keep our eyes on the that little boy, and Bo and I are constantly hearing the "Mooooooom, Derrick's on the stairs!"

Derrick is also pretty much done with baby food. He wants finger food, and he wants it now, thank you very much. He loves sitting around the table with us and eating what we are eating. He thinks he's so cool, the bomb-diggity. That's right. Bringing it back.

So that's it. That's been us for the last week or so. Bo has this week off again for Thanksgiving. Bo's dad, Kevin, is visiting, and later today our cousins and good friends, Dave and Sydney Heslop and co., are coming! We are excited for some yummy food and good company. Now.... who wants to make me some yummy food?

And because no blog post is complete without a picture, here's one of the kids with some friends at the museum. They are pretending to be dinosaurs sitting in a nest.

Our first snow!!

2011-11-11T19:30:00.006-06:00

It snowed yesterday afternoon!! Oh my goodness, my little Texans were SOOOO EXCITED. They were jumping up and down and squealing with enthusiasm. They both ran and got on their brand new snow coats, put gloves on, and were out the door in no time. They would've put their snow pants on too, but I told them it wasn't snowing that bad. :)

Unfortunately, for them, it only snowed for about ten minutes yesterday evening. There was snow on the ground this morning, however, and my kids wanted to go out and make snow men like crazy!! As it was only 7 in the morning, I wasn't about to let that happen, not to mention there maybe was enough snow to make an inch tall snowman. They were only able to be persuaded not to go outside by the promise that there would be more snow in a couple weeks, and then they could play to their hearts content.

The best part about this whole snow thing, though, was that Bo gave the "go" for listening to Christmas music!!

Soccer season is over

2011-11-11T19:22:00.003-06:00

Carter's first soccer season has come and gone. He had such a fun time playing this year. You could totally see a difference in his playing skills from the beginning of the season to the end.

If you ask Carter his favorite thing about the season, he'll tell you it's the trophy that he got. Yep, he's pretty proud of that thing. Right now its smack in the middle of our mantle, for all to see.

Carter, you totally rocked out there. You were such a great soccer player! You were great at sharing the ball, kicking the ball, scoring, and cheering on your teammates. If you ask me though, I think you were REALLY good at playing defense. You are so fast at running across the field and blocking those kicks! We're proud of you!

Man, that kid of mine sure is a cutie!! (Mine's the blondie in the brown pants.) hahaa.

Trick or Treat!

2011-11-11T19:02:00.003-06:00

This year Bo had to work for Halloween. Bummer deal. Thankfully we had some friends who took pity on us and invited us to join their little Halloween party. It was great!

We ate dinner and played, then headed out for some good ol' fashioned door to door trick or treating. One friend, who has kids the same age as me and was also without her husband that night, went around with me to the houses. The rest of our party group were full of older kids who wanted to go a little faster, so they went in a different group, and I don't blame them for ditching us. After about a half hour of trick or treating the little girls, Meg and Eliza, were tired and wanted to go back to the party house. I opted to stay with Carter and Jackson, and together we literally took off running, trying to get as many houses as possible. Phew! Lets just say that Meg maybe had an inch deep of candy in her bucket, and Carter's bucket was FULL.

Oh yeah, Meg decided she wanted to be "Princess Cindalella" for the party, instead of the fairy godmother that she was at the zooboo.

Darth Pumpkin

2011-11-03T15:27:00.003-05:00

This is just a quick shout out to my wife's mad skills as a pumpkin carver. I let Carter pick out 2 patterns for us to carve from a Google image search for pumpkin patterns. I was gracious enough to carve out the 2nd pumpkin, while I let Cassidy have all the glory of carving Darth Vader. Her pumpkin, by the way, won the "I would have quit a long time ago" award at the ward Halloween party.

ZooBoo

2011-11-02T21:13:00.004-05:00

We went to the Indianapolis Zoo during Bo's week off. Of course, since I'm all about all things fun, we hit it during ZooBoo hours, which meant the kids got to wear their costumes and go trick or treating there.

We went with our good friends, the Humphreys. Have I mentioned them? I'm sure I have. They are first year EM residents too. We love hanging out with them.

As can be expected, we had lots of fun. You know, I don't think my kids even really looked at the animals, they were too into the candy and Halloween fun! Oh well. We go there enough, I suppose. I hope they realize how good they have it! Why when I was a kid.... hahhaa.

This will definitely be a tradition.

Notice Carter's pose. Notice he has a pose in almost every picture. That kid. He cracks us up.
Best friends!

We had to take a picture next to this section. Carter and pirates, well they just go together.

Cute girls!

Carter and Luke. The girls would have nothing to do with the lion.

Derrick knows how to work it. He gets to sit in the nice ride and enjoy the treats.

Check out Carter's racing position. The kids are "racing a cheetah." You start at the front and get a couple seconds head start, and then lights above light up, indicating how fast a cheetah is. The point is to get down the track as far as you can before the cheetah/lights catch up to you. My kids love it.

See the lights above Meg? Yeah she didn't get far before the lights caught her. She's so cute though!

I am in love with that boy. Such a cutie. Bridget--- I know what you are thinking.

Running around an obstacle course

My babes. Carter is giving us a bad guy look. I hope.

The Pumpkin Patch!!

2011-11-02T20:53:00.003-05:00

Honestly, one of the things that got me most excited to move up here was the thought that we would actually get to go to a real live pumpkin patch. Seriously.

For the past 5 years of living in Texas, yes it was 5 (we lived in Temple, TX for a year before starting med. school), we had not once gone to a real pumpkin patch. All the pumpkin patches we had around us were fake! We're talking a church grassy area with hay bales and meticulously placed pumpkins. I've gotta say, for someone who grew up on a farm, seeing a "pumpkin patch" like that and showing it to your kids, well it was just plain embarrassing.

But not this year baby!! This year my kids got to see that pumpkins actually grow in the fields! I should have worn my bibs. Okay, I don't really have any... pathetic. So anyways... we had a lot of fun. The kids loved picking out their little pumpkins, playing in the straw maze, jumping off or sliding down the huge hay pile, and being out in the fresh air. They had a "dinosaur" that ate/squashed pumpkins. Carter LOVED watching it. Meg wouldn't go anywhere NEAR that area. They also made a slide out of an old combine (for you non-farmers, a combine is a tractorish machine that cuts down crops. Think the bull from CARS), which was a big hit with my kids. You'd better believe I told my dad all about it. I'm thinking of introducing that idea to ML. :)

We had tons of fun. It will definitely be a repeat, or at least going to a real pumpkin patch will be one. They have lots of farms around here where you can go pick your own pumpkins, apples, raspberries (remember old post?), and other things. So maybe next year we'll try a different farm. Either way, we're loving it.

Going on a hay ride out to the field to pick us some pumpkins!

Chuck E Cheese

2011-10-26T20:23:00.003-05:00

Where a kid can be a kid.

We went to Chuck E Cheese's one of the days Bo had off last week.

The kids had a ton of fun, of course.

I couldn't resist taking these pictures of Meg and Derrick. Meg kept insisting that Derrick ride with her. Derrick thought it was great.

So cute!

Haunted House!

2011-10-20T21:53:00.005-05:00

We've heard lots of good things about the Children's Museum's Haunted House, so we decided to take the kids this week, since Bo has this week off.

We went during the "lights on" time so that the kids wouldn't be scared. They had so much fun and weren't the least bit scared. I think that the workers walking around talking to the kids and handing them candy had something to do with it not being scary. If it were dark, I think it would be another story. Anyways... it was really cool and very detailed. They had it really decorated. It was fun to go around and look at all the things.

The theme was that these two vampires, Vic and Viv, went on vacation, and these were the sights they saw. It makes sense when you see the pictures. We "visited" New Gorleans, Dead Valley, Horrorwood, Count Rushmore, and some other places I can't remember. Meg and I had a fun time being "scared" at the giant bugs. Derrick showed no expression whatsoever. Bo and Carter just loved it all.

It was a fun family activity. We love Halloween!

The kids in front of an ROUS.
I was trying to get Derrick inside the mouth. I love that he's just looking at it like its no big deal, even though there are skeletons in blood on the inside of that thing.

Carter being a zombie.

Count Rushmore

Horrorwood celebrities eating out.

I love that Derrick is reaching for the spider's leg.

After the Haunted House we decided to go upstairs in the museum and end the day with a ride on the carousel.

Pajama Time

2011-10-20T21:41:00.003-05:00

Now that we are in an environment where it actually gets cold in the fall and winter, I'm realizing we don't enough cold weather clothing. I've been worried about Meg and Derrick staying warm at night, since neither likes to sleep under the blankets. When we were at Costco on Monday, I found the answer to my worries, footie pajamas!! Carter realized they had some in his size too, so he wanted in on the action, making sure he got ones that matched Derrick.

Here are my babies! Aren't they cute? They LOVE these pjs and would wear them all day if I'd let them. I love most of all that when I put Derrick in one, Carter goes and finds his and puts them on too. So cute.

crafty, crafty

2011-10-20T21:30:00.004-05:00

Anything requires paint, googly eyes, pipe cleaners and making a mess is sure to be a fun bet at our house. That's one of the reasons why we love Halloween so much around here. There are so many fun activities to do!

We had a bunch of our new friends over to our house to join in on the crafts, but unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the group in action! Oh well, at least I have the end results. And so, without further ado, I present the extent of my creative craft ideas, which thankfully is good enough for the kids:

No, I did not make the pumpkin lights. ;) We can claim, however, the awesome paper pumpkins, the super fun spiders (the orange pipe cleaner on top of the orange spider is Meg's "spider web" for her spider), and super cool bats. We also made some ghosts out of garbage bags. Those are outside hanging from our tree, but since it's raining outside, you don't get a picture. Take my word, they are rad.

Bats!!

2011-10-16T20:48:00.004-05:00

This past week we met up with some friends to go to this live Bat show that was going on at the Children's Museum. We got tickets for it like 3 weeks ago and have really been looking forward to it.

This Bat expert came and talked all about bats and even brought four to take around and show everyone. It was a really interesting show. He disclaimed a lot of myths about bats, and really made me appreciate them, once he told me how many bugs these guys eat! :)

He brought 4 different bats to show. None of them could fly because they had been injured. One was super tiny, which apparently most bats are, one what I would've considered a "normal" size, a big furry one that can only be found an island in Asia, and the last bat was, well I can't remember what kind, but it was the largest species of bat. It was HUGE.

Apparently this guy has been on Ellen, Conan O'Brien, David Letterman, and some others. It was really fun and the kids had a great time.

After seeing the bats, we decided to go up a few levels in the museum and go check out the frog exhibit. The frog exhibit was fun. It has probably 20 different kinds of frogs, along with dress ups, computer games, and other things. Carter took the picture of the frog, but I took the other frog pictures that turned out fuzzy.

Carter watching intently.

In the back of this picture you can see the bat guy walking around with a bat. In the middle of the picture, where the girl in the pink shirt is (Layna), is another aisle. The guy would also walk up and down that, so Carter ditched me to go sit over there to be closer to the aisle. You can barely glimpse his head. He's right next to Luke, who's in the green striped shirt.

The bat guy, or is it bat-man? :)
Meg and me. Meg was watching the show, shafting the camera. Derrick was on my lap, you can't see him, but he is pulling the string on my sweater.

Meg dressing up as a frog.

Weird looking frog.

My cuties. There was this skylight that looked like a fly that would "fly" on the ground. The kids had fun trying to step on it. Derrick got really frustrated with it, because as soon as he'd crawl to it, it'd shift away.

Tay-has

2011-10-12T14:22:00.003-05:00

Last week the kids and I took a quick trip down to Texas to visit my sister-in-law Bridget and her kids. Oh yeah, I saw Whitney too. ;) They live just outside of Houston.
We had tons of fun. We left after school on Monday and came back late Saturday night. The kids did great traveling, I think that's mostly because it was a non-stop flight.
Bridget and Whitney's kids are close in age to mine. Eli is 4, Dora is 2, and Emmy is 3 months. Our kids played together sooooo well. The boys were either dressing up in costumes and running around the house, or they were off jumping in the pool together. The girls mostly spent their time up in Dora's room playing with stuffed animals, "cooking", or playing mommy and baby. So funny. The babies? They eyed each other, ate their food, and slept.
We had a great time visiting them and were sad to leave.
One random thing about the trip was that I kept getting confused as to where I was. Being there felt like I had never moved to Indy, so when taking to my kids about going back home, I kept mentioning going back to Texas, forgetting that was where we already were, and that home was now Indiana. It was just trippy.
I will say that I'm glad to be back home in the nice fall weather. The trees are all changing colors and its just so fun to have an actual Fall.

Emmy and Derrick. Yes, I posed Derrick. They did hold hands at one time, and with no prompting. So cute.

Whitney and Bridget and a bouncy house the the kids absolutely LOVED playing in. What a fun toy!

All of the gang! We were all able to fit nicely in Bridget's Tahoe.

The last day we were there Bridget took us to Build A Bear. The kids had so much fun making their "best friends." THe guy in the red shirt below with our kids is Bridget's dad, Don. He's our adopted grandpa. My kids love him! We adopted Bridget's parents when we were living in Texas. They are our second family.

Carter made a puppy.

Megan got a cute pink teddy bear that smells like strawberry ice cream.

Playing with their new toys.

First Legit Hair Cut

2011-10-11T16:32:00.004-05:00

I took Carter to a hair salon that specializes in kids. I've always cut Carters hair, so this is his first time getting it cut by someone with actual training.
I wanted to get it cut by scissors, not clippers, and I didn't trust myself. He had a great time. Meg was super jealous and wanted hers cut too. Too bad for her, no way on earth is she getting her curls cut off! Bo and I are hanging on to those for as long as we can.

Soccer!

2011-10-11T16:12:00.005-05:00

So Carter has been having a good soccer season. The first game he was just trying to figure out the gist of it, but now he has it down! He is loving it and has even scored quite a few goals.

This is us watching Carter at practice. I'm eating some skittles, hence the weird face.

Derrick sitting up for the VERY FIRST TIME!!
Go Carter!!

So handsome in his uniform!

I have what??

2011-10-02T10:36:00.004-05:00

At least once a day I have a moment where I think, "Holy smokes, I have THREE kids."

I just can't believe it. Am I old enough to have three kids? I don't think so. In my mind I'm still 21. All the same, I'm so glad to have these three kiddos in my life. They are so funny, so loving, and definitely entertaining.

Last week I took Meg in for her 3 year check up and Derrick for a late 6 month check up or an early 9 month check up, take your pick.

Meg was happy to get NO shots, Derrick, on the other hand, was not too pleased with his four shots.

The stats?

Megan: weight: 34.5 lbs. = 75th percentile.

height: 3 ft. = 25th percentile.

Derrick: weight: 18.3 lbs. = 25th percentile

height: 28 in. = 75th percentile

head circ.: 18 in. = 75th percentile.

I've always said that Derrick is my skinny baby, and these stats prove it. Carter and Megs were such chubs, but Derrick doesn't have one roll. Never has. He's our tall skinny baby. We have high hopes for a professional athletic career. :)

Oh yeah, for records sake, Derrick is crawling. He started crawling about a week before he turned 7 months, so he was officially crawling at 6 months. I can't believe my baby is crawling. It is too early!

Why I sometimes don't comment

2011-09-20T20:16:00.002-05:00

For some reason when I go to comment on blogs, not all of them, but some, blogger won't let me comment. Why is that? Does anyone know? It is SO FRUSTRATING. If you know, please help me figure out how to fix it!
Thanks!
Rachel J, Lib, Whit, Bridget's new blog, and so many more... that's why i'm not leaving comments.

Soccer

2011-09-19T18:12:00.002-05:00

Meg turns 3!

2011-09-19T12:54:00.004-05:00

I can't believe our little girl is THREE.

She is such a fun, sweet, goofy, considerate, loving little girl. We have really enjoyed having her in our lives.

Meg has been looking forward to her birthday for MONTHS. She had requested a princess birthday, so a princess birthday is what she got! I was originally going to invite a bunch of the girls from our ward, who are her age, over for a party, but I know my Meg, and she's kinda shy and I'm pretty confident a bunch of people she didn't know super well would make her uncomfortable. Instead we just invited another family over that we're really close with, the Humphreys. They are EM first year residents too.

I blew up some balloons the night before, along with decorating the house with pink streamers. She was pretty excited! After Carter got on the bus, we met Bo (he was on his way home from a night shift) at a donut place and had a fun breakfast, complete with pink donuts.

After lunch it was present time! She was really spoiled with all the princess things she got. She got a little Belle princess figure, princess pj's and a princess notebook and crayons from Grandma Sandy, a high chair for her dolls, a princess/fairy dress, and her most favorite gift was a little convertible car that she now has all her little people ride in.

The day ended with pizza, cake and ice cream, and sneaking up to her room to eat the starburst that the Humphreys gave her with her present. :)

We love you Megan-girl! You are so much fun to be with. Happy Birthday!

Donuts for breakfast! Could life get any better?
Apparently it does!

Her stash.

Meg and her friend, Layna. I'm pretty sure it took Megan at least 4 blows to get those candles out! haha

More Children's Museum

2011-09-12T19:42:00.005-05:00

I don't know if I posted enough pictures with this blog....
We took another trip to the Children's Museum. Man, it would've been nice having a place like this when I was a kid! The price you pay to live in a small farming community. My kids have no clue how good they have it. :)
Anyways, like I've said before, this place is great. My kids are always begging to go here. I think I might actually be going again with just Meg this week. We have to hit up the Barbie section one more time before they close it down to make room for a new exhibit. Frogs. Pssshh. Like that could EVER compare to Barbie. ;)
So yeah, here are some pictures of the fun time we had the other day. This time we went to the science section, a part we hadn't been to before, so that was fun.

Carter was obsessed with the hula hoops.

Pretending to be asleep.

This was a tunnel where they could look into a pond and see fish.

My couch potatoes.

You could move this truck by peddling with your hands. Carter LOVED it.

Carter is steering the crane.

Playing with the water. If you pulled on the ropes, you could move buckets of water. Kind of hard, hence me having to use my foot to help pull, in the picture below.

Building a boat.

Garden lovin'

2011-09-12T19:32:00.003-05:00

One of the very first things my dad and Bo did when we moved into our new home was plant a garden. Bo has been looking forward to having a garden for quite sometime, and after it was planted, he seriously gave the garden every spare moment of attention he could spend. It was so funny. He'd come home and head straight out back to go check on how the garden was doing.
The moment it started producing, he was in heaven! We have had so many cucumbers that we're quite sick of them. :) I've got like 8 bags of frozen chopped zucchini so that I can make bread anytime. And the tomatoes! We have had TONS of tomatoes. If the weather stays warm, we should continue to keep having them. We have dozens of green tomatoes on the plants right now. And FINALLY our green peppers are growing. I don't know quite know if they'll make it before Fall, but one can hope. Next year we vow to start the garden early.
Anyways, here's a picture taken way back when we were first getting produce.

Rasberry Picking!

2011-09-01T10:02:00.006-05:00

While my mom was here, I took advantage of her help and went to a local farm that lets you pick your own raspberries! This place was pretty cool. Obviously you still had to pay for the stuff you picked, but you should have seen the many things they had there. They had scores and scores of apple fields, along with quite a few raspberry patches, pumpkin patches, a pond that you could fish out of, and so much more.
We didn't end up getting that much raspberries because it was mostly just my mom picking. haha. Carter was pretty good for awhile, but then he got a hold of the camera. Meg... yeah she was no help. She kept wanting to pick the little white ones, you know, the ones that aren't even CLOSE to being ripe. She thought they were "cute little baby ones." (imagine me smacking my forehead). That girl. I didn't pick hardly any either, since that was when my back was really bad.
We only picked about a half of a buckets worth when it was all over, but it was enough to have a good time, get out of the house, and to make yummy raspberry milkshakes (go figure) and a peach-raspberry pie with. YUM.
Now that my back is better, we'll have to go again, and this time be serious about it! We want some jam!

My mom, Carter, and Meg. Don't those bushes look pathetic? Yeah, we're having a drought here in Indiana, and apparently it has made the raspberry patches kindof pathetic and small. After this picture was taken we found some bigger bushes.

Meg holding whatever she and I collected. We really had quite a pathetic pile of raspberries.

This is what Meg did pretty much the whole time.

These next photos are compliments of Carter's mad skills.

Yeah, Derrick wasn't such a fan of our adventure, and even less of a fan of Carter sticking the camera in his face. But isn't that the cutest face?????

First Day of Kindergarten

2011-08-29T08:30:00.003-05:00

Carter had his first day of school on August 17th. He was so excited. He could hardly sleep the night before, and in the morning he was just bouncing off the walls with anticipation.
Can my baby really be this old??
I had taken Carter to his school the day before to meet his teacher and see his classroom, but unfortunately I forgot to take pictures. Darn it. I'll admit it, I started to get teary eyed when we were there. I just can't believe my baby is now leaving me, granted for only 2 and half hours a day. He is growing up and heading off to new adventures without me.
I think Megan had a harder time with Carter going than I did. She was so sad on the walk back to the house, hanging her head and dragging her feet. She's since gotten over it and relishes her time alone. haha.
Mornings are strange now. Meg likes to watch a show or two and then goes off and plays with her toys. Derrick takes his morning naps. Things are....quiet. I actually get to take a shower without fighting children in the background.
Carter only goes to school from 8:30, when he gets on the bus, till 11:40. Then he's home and eating lunch and playing with us. I really like the schedule. I feel like its perfect for transitioning us to full school next year. Like how I said us? It's true, I feel like it's as much for me as it is for him. :)

Waiting for the bus.

The neighborhood kids. I really like our neighborhood. It's perfect for the kids.

Getting on the bus. In all honesty, this is probably the the thing he was most excited for out of the whole day. haha.

Kid logic

2011-08-24T21:07:00.003-05:00

Bo: "This might come as a shock to you, Carter, but I don't know how to make robots. Especially out of plastic fruit."

Carter has been begging us to make him a robot. He brought down a ton of toys that we could use to make it. Included in these toys were Hungry Hippos, Batman, some beads, and Meg's plastic food. He won't listen to reason either. He just doesn't understand why we can't.

Today in the store Carter told me that it was okay if I didn't get him a bunny, because "I'll just pray to Heavenly Father and He'll get me one."

Well, we might not be able to get him to believe us that we can't build robots, but at least we have him believing in prayer.

"You're a Mommy."

2011-08-21T15:10:00.003-05:00

So Carter calls me upstairs and asks me to help him with his game, Lego Batman. Our conversation after asking me to help him :

Me: "Carter, I've never played this game before. What makes you think I can do this? You've played this game way more than I have."
Carter: "Yeah, but you're a Mommy."
Me: "Huh. Yeah I guess that's true. Okay fine, I'll try."

Hahaa. I'm glad Carter still thinks I can do pretty much anything. I wonder how long I'll be able to get him to believe this. Considering when my back hurt, I called MY mom, I'm guessing it'll be a little longer still. I hope.

2011-08-19T22:49:00.003-05:00

Wow, I've really gotten behind on this whole blogging thing. If I want any posts for my blog book, I'd better actually blog! haha.
I have pictures and events to record, I'm just too lazy to do it. Bo moved all our pictures from the laptop over to our new computer. So now if I want to upload pics, I need to do it on the computer. There are two problems with that...haha... one, I'd actually have to get up off of my nice comfy recliner and go to another room, where I'd have to cramp my neck to try and see the tv too, and two, I'd have to sit in that really uncomfortable chair at the desk, which hurts my back. So yeah, no pictures for this post. I'll get to it, I promise. My goal is to write one new post every day next week.
Bo is working in the ICU. He leaves the house at about 6 am and gets home anywhere from 8:30 to 10:30 pm. And just because he's home, doesn't mean he's done. He gets home and then spends hours on the computer writing notes about his patients. Last night he didn't climb into bed till 1:30 am. My poor hubby. My poor kids for not seeing their dad. Poor me. I wasn't meant to be a single mom, I don't have the patience. Last weekish he worked 7 days straight, then 3 night shifts, then had 4 days off. Really it was only 3 because he spent the first day sleeping. Now he's working 7 days straight and ending with one night shift. Luckily he'll get 5 days off this time, so I'm really looking forward to next week, hence the blogging every day next week.
My mom came, helped tons, then left. My back was able to heal quite a bit with her here, but it's still not all better. I'm pretty much on pain killers all day. I'm supposed to start seeing a physical therapist though, so here's to hoping that I'll get better.
Carter started Kindergarten on Wednesday. Yes, I will have a blog post just for that. Can he really be that old? Am I really old enough to have a kindergartener?? I don't think so. Sometimes I think I'm too young for a lot of stuff. hahaha.
My house and yard are in shambles. I haven't been able to really clean or do anything because of taking it easy for my back. But... my kids are fed, happy, and at least we have clean clothes. That's all that's really important, right?
So please, please, don't give up on me, those who are still faithful friends and readers of the blog. I'm here and I'm making a comeback!!

kids

2011-08-06T09:37:00.002-05:00

Carter has been trying to sell me his money all morning. He wants a dollar, or two, or a hundred dollars for his coins. He's assured me it doesn't have to be a billion. It could "maybe just be 25 dollars."

I told Meg that her birthday was in one month and that she would be turning 3. Her response? "No, I two! I two for long long time. Next I turn 5 like Carter."
--she didn't take it too well that she would never be the same age as Carter.

YAY

2011-08-02T15:19:00.002-05:00

My mom is coming on Thursday to help me out!
What a relief.
With her help I'll really be able to take it easy and get my back all better.
Fingers crossed.
Thank goodness for moms. And moms-in-laws. Bo's mom offered to come help too. If I'm not better by the time my mom leaves, I might just take her up on that offer.
I'm just so relieved that I'm going to get some help.

Out of Comission

2011-08-02T07:29:00.002-05:00

So last week was a WHOLE lot better than the week before. Thank goodness. Bo had like 3 days off, so we were able to just relax and have family time.
Unfortunately by the end of last week my back started hurting crazy bad. And I mean BAD. Lower back pain. I went to the Dr. and she sent me to the hospital to get some x-rays. Apparently I have a degenerating disk (or something like that) which they think stems from my bad sledding accident I was in 10 years ago. I was given steroids and if those don't make my back better, my Dr. wants to get an MRI. Here's to hoping it gets better.
So pretty much with my bad back, we have been out of comission. Big time. No stores, no parks, notta. I just can't. I've pretty much just been lying on the couch watching my kids destroy the house.
I am getting a little better though, and might possibly fly my mom out to help.
So yeah, I haven't blogged because honestly, there has been nothing of interest in my life.

What. A. Week.

2011-07-23T21:39:00.002-05:00

*note--if you're feeling down, just read this, it might make you feel better.

Monday: Let me just start off by saying that this week started off with my birthday on Monday. I am now 29. Only one year left in the 20's. I gotta admit it, I'm really sad about that.
So anyways, Bo had to work all. day. long. on my birthday. He left about 6 am ish and didn't get home till after midnight. That was a bummer deal, but whatever. Carter brought me lots of his toys wrapped in blankets as presents. What a sweetie. I treated myself to Chipotle for dinner. YUM. I did have a friend who hung out with me too, so it wasn't too bad.
Tuesday: Anyways, Tuesday wasn't bad either, just busy. I really really REALLY wanted to go to Harry Potter for my birthday, and Wednesday was Bo's only free night, so I tried getting a babysitter, but wouldn't you know it, all the babysitters either had mutual or institute for Wed. BUMMER.
Wednesday: I woke up Wednesday with the great idea that I'd swap with a friend in the ward (my only friend in the ward). She said she'd love to. SWEET. One problem. Carter started not feeling well and wouldn't eat a thing. I thought he might be tired and was optimistically hoping he would feel better after nap. Apparently not, because after nap he had a fever and was crying. Dang it. No date. Well at least no date out. Bo and I did make up for it, kinda, by renting part one of the Harry Potter Deathly Hallows and eating Panda Express while the kids cried themselves to sleep. haha.
Thursday: About two in the morning Carter came into my room saying he threw up. Joy. Luckily it was only a little, since honestly he hadn't eaten anything all day, and it was in a bowl. I helped him out, put him back to bed, and three hours later Derrick woke up ready to play. I got him back to sleep a little bit later only to have Meg come in at 7 am ready for the day. I knew it was going to be a long day, and I was dreading having to deal with Carter being sick. If only that were my problem for the day.
I came down the stairs with Meg, ready to sleep some more on the couch, only to hear a trickling noise. I thought it was the faucet, so I checked all the bathrooms. Nope. I looked up in my living room, and to my horror, could see patches starting to droop on the ceiling. No. Way. I ran upstairs, because yes, our water heater is upstairs, and sure enough, the water heater was broken. So was the tray under it. Kinda defeats the point of having a tray, if it's BROKEN. About a half hour later, the water started dripping out of my ceiling into my living room. Thank goodness I was at least prepared and had pans and towels ready.
I called Bo, who was on his way to work, and he told me to call the home warranty people. Home w. people said they'd have a plumber call me. He called me an hour later to inform me he would make it over as soon as he could, but it might not be till tomorrow. WHAT???? Thankfully he came at 2. From 7 am to 2 I was pretty much running up and down the stairs with wet and dry towels. So many towels. So much water. All by myself. Carter was still sick. He had diarhea. He needed me to help him. Derrick was hungry and wanting to be held. Megan wouldn't stop washing her little princess dolls in the pots of water on the floor that were collecting the water. Can we say AHHHHHHH! I remember thinking, it's not even 10 yet. We didn't get naps because we had to wait for the plumber men to come. They came. They looked at my ceiling, told me I'd better get a restoration guy here asap, went upstairs and confirmed the water heater had indeed broken (you think?), realized they brought the wrong water heater replacement, and left. Left me home to watch the water keep dripping even though they had said the water was turned off. Restoration guy came. He quoted $2500 at least. Thank heavens for insurance. Said as soon as he got permission from insurance, he'd get started.
I called the insurance people crying, because by then the water was a constant STREAM, no longer drips, I was on low sleep, my kids on no naps, and I couldn't call anyone because I don't know anyone here, its a 3 hour difference to WA where my dad is, and everyone in my family pretty much has their own problems anyways. The insurance lady was very nice and helpful. I love Liberty Mutual. She told me I was doing what I was supposed to be doing. She got my adjuster to call me. He was helpful. Ceiling started to slow down dripping. Bo called at 4 and said he was coming home, about 2 hours early! Bo came home just in time to meet the plumbers getting ready to finally install my new heater. I left. I had to. I was losing it. I went to Target, a wonderful, wonderful place.
I came home and the restoration guy was setting up the fans, 9 in total, and two dehumidifiers. I didn't realize this, but the worst was still coming. How? Well Indiana has been having HOT HOT weather. Heat index of 105 weather. So my ac was already running a lot, and it is HOT outside. What do you think my house might feel like with 9 fans and 2 huge dehumidifiers. I'll tell you, no I'll let the thermostat tell you, 89 degrees!!! It is sooooo hot in our house now. The bedrooms are a little cooler, but all in all, we are drinking a lot of water and getting out of the house as much as possible. At least it cools down a little at night. Oh yeah, and the guy says that all of this needs to run for 4 to 5 days at least.
Friday: You 'd think I'd seen the worst. Friday afternoon I go into see Carter during his quiet time, and he is kicking the wall and crying. His ear hurts. I bring him downstairs, and start looking for a pediatrician, because I know my boy, and he NEVER complains of ear aches. It's like 3:45 in the afternoon. I call a pediatrician and she tells me I can come in, if I get there as soon as I can. I was out of the house in record time. Poor Meg, I had to wake her up from her nap. We get in the car, go to the Dr, and sure enough, it's an ear infection. We get the prescriptions and head out the door to drive over to Target, because that is a wonderful, wondeful store, and I need to fill Carter's prescription. At this point I need to mention that I am driving Bo's car because he was going on a retreat (leaving me home alone with the kids for the whole weekend) that evening and he needed the Explorer to car pool some of the other residents. He took the car with wonderul ac and tinted windows. I was left with a car with horrible, unreliable ac. Remember, heat index of 105. The seat belts burned my kids, shoot they burned ME. So I get in Bo's car and start driving to the store when all the sudden the car starts shuddering and acting like it's out of gas. I looked down at the dash and no, it has gas, instead it was OVERHEATING. The ac stopped working. The car drove like it wanted to shift but couldn't. It was crawling. I started to panic. I was out on some random road, with three kids in the back, and I didn't know what to do. I prayed. I prayed and I prayed and I PRAYED. I'm proud to admit that I didn't start crying. We made it to Target, but barely. That car practically coasted in the parking lot. I looked back at my kids, and you should have seen them. Carter's hair was all damp. Meg's face was RED. Derrick's little bald head had sweat dripping all over it. My poor babies.
I got a hold of Bo. He couldn't come help me out till 6:30, but at least he'd be able to, because they weren't heading off for his retreat till 7:30. An hour and half to kill in Target. This actually might have been the best part of the week. hahaa. The kids got icee's. They got to play with the toys. I bought tv dinners, because there is no way I'm cooking in a 90 degree house.
Bo came. He saved us. He put coolant and oil in the car. He let us drive the wondeful cold Explorer home. He even left it for us. He got someone else to carpool to the retreat. We came home. Thermostat said it was 91. I turned off those dumb fans and dehumidifier. We cooled down. Turned everything back on and then it was bed.
Saturday: Spent as much time in the cool places of the house as we could. Went to the nice air conditioned library and then McDonalds for dinner. We're all tired and whiney. I blame it on the heat.
Thank goodness tomorrow is Sunday. We'll get to spend three hours in a nice air conditioned building. Not to mention, it'll be the beginning of a new week.
Fingers crossed.
Bo and I figure that other stuff might as well break (okay not really) since we'd already met our deductable for both the insurance and the warranty. We haven't even paid our first mortgage payment yet. Oh yeah, and the house inspector that did our house is going to get an earfull on Monday, because you'd think he would have noticed THREE cracks in the plate under the water heater.
Enjoy the pics.

Downstairs.The cooler and bucket are there because I had to switch them from the pans because it was dripping SO MUCH.

Restoration guy poked three holes in our ceiling to help get it to start drying.

This is upstairs.

Indianapolis Zoo

2011-07-22T07:56:00.002-05:00

Oh man, I have been really slacking in this blogging thing.
Here are some pictures of a trip to the zoo we took awhile back. The Indianapolis Zoo is really cool. While at this visit we got to see a really neat dolphin show (seriously cool, with tons of tricks from the dolphins), a tiger/trainer show, and an elephant show, where the elephant did all sorts of tricks and then afterwards you could pet it! So below are mostly pictures of us at the elephant show. In the bottom picture, if you look, Carter is in the middle and his hand is on the elephant. Neat!

Random tidbits on the kids

2011-07-15T15:33:00.004-05:00

My kids. They are a handful. They are cute. They are crazy. They are lovable. They are sanity testers. I hope this means they are normal. haha.

Derrick. Oh that Derrick-boy. What a fun, fun, FUN baby. So smiley. I feel bad sometimes, because often times he is just watching me, waiting for me to glance his way, and when I do, he puts this HUGE grin on his face. I should look at him more often. Those other two kiddos of mine are so distracting though! Oye. Derrick loves life. He seriously is always happy. Well okay, maybe not when he is hungry and I've made him wait for 5, 10, okay...15 more minutes. Then he's not. But other than that, I couldn't ask for a better baby. He is 5 months old. How is he that old already????? SLOW DOWN KID! Slow down time. He can roll, he's actually been doing it for over a month. He is starting to grab things in front of him. He'll grab Meg's hair when I'm doing it, he'll grab Carter's ears when Carter rubs his face in Derrick's belly, he'll grab anything he can. His most favorite thing to do is grab his feet and then try to eat them. He love, love LOVES to chew his feet. Whenever I'm changing his diaper and I have to pull his legs out of the footie sleepers, the feet are always wet. haha. He is so flexible. I know babies are supposed to be, but this one is my most flexible by far. To quote Bo, "It looks like he's bending in half." Really. He's also my drooliest, slobberiest (word? it is now) baby. He loves his brother and sister, but I'm by far his favorite. I should be, I've earned it. :) Derrick is very sensitive. If one of the other kids is crying, you can count on him to join in, even though two seconds before that he was grinning ear to ear. That is my cutie boy Derrick. I love that boy and am glad he's in the family. I really love having him around.

Megan-love. What a girly girl. She loves to play with babies. She's been great with Derrick, but she's even better with her dolls. She loves all things pink, purple too, but mostly pink. She can also wrestle with the best of them. She puts up a good fight with Carter. She says the funniest things. Lately, when we lay down with her for nap time, she'll stroke mine or Bo's face, say she missed us too much, she loves us too much, and that we're the best mommy or daddy. Too tender. She'll also just have the most adoring look on her face. Yeah, I love that. Meg is STUBBORN. She still screams herself to sleep every night because she doesn't want to go to bed. Megan is independent. She knows what she wants, always has. She calls me "mommy" even though I've always referred to myself as "mama" and Carter calls me "mama" too. Don't know where she got it, but that's what she calls me. She's athletic, just like Carter. She loves to dance. She can't wait to wear make-up, and was strutting around the house today in my heels. She makes us laugh so hard. I can't wait for the Fall. Carter is going to be in Kindergarten half day and for those 2 and a half hours that he's gone, it's going to be just me and Meg. Okay, Derrick too, but he'll be sleeping. It's never been just me and Meg. I'm excited. So that's my Megan-love.

Carterbug. Carter informed me yesterday that he can't decide whether to do Karate or be a Jedi when he grows up. Tough choice. He is OBSESSED with Star Wars. He even wrote a book about it. really. He goes around the house humming the Darth Vader song. At night time, just before prayer, we usually sing some songs. He ALWAYS requests the Darth Vader song. Really sets the mood for a good heart-felt spirit-inspired prayer. haha. For the longest time he thought 88 was the ultimate number. To quote him, "It's even more than a hundred BILLION." He did, however, inform me like a month ago that one million twenty might be more than 88. haha. Still, 88 is usually the number he refers to when he means a lot. Funny, right? I don't know why it's that number, but whatever. He is quick to compliment. I can be my ugliest, just rolled out of bed, in mismatching bleached clothes with the hair everywhere and he'll say, "you're so pretty today, mom." I tell Bo he could learn from Carter. Carter has learned to talk back. Talk back and argue and debate and everything else! What happened to my little boy who just assumed I was all knowing and did everything I asked??? I hope this talking back thing is a quick stage, 'cause let me tell you, that is NOT going to be acceptable with this sister. No way. Carter is my most challenging child, but he's also my most loving and comforting child. Why is that? Because he is my oldest, and a lot like me, I have a hard time watching him try to make friends because I know what if feels like, and I don't want him lonely. It makes me sad if I think he's left out. This move has been hard on me for a number of reasons, but one of the main ones is because Carter has no friends right now, and watching him try to make new ones and trying to fit in is just so gut-wrenching to me. He really wants some friends. He is hyper, he is active, he is trying, but at the end of the day, he's still my lovable, sweet, adoring baby. I love him and would be lost without him.

Do I really have THREE kids??? I somehow don't feel like I'm old enough for that. haha. I love them though, and can't imagine what life would be without them. Very dull, I'm sure.

Our First Visitors!

2011-07-11T06:26:00.005-05:00

Our friends, the Heiners, came to visit!! They were moving from Spokane, WA to Rhode Island and stopped at our house on the way.
We were so excited to see them. It was short, only one night, but it was oh so much fun.
Before they left we went to the park for a couple of hours to get some energy out of the kids. Here are some of the pictures we took. There was a hike that we took while at the park, hence the random trail pictures too.
Doug, Serena, and co., we are so glad you came to see us!! We miss you guys.

The Children's Museum of Indianapolis

2011-07-08T08:30:00.003-05:00

Did you know that Indianapolis has the biggest Children's Museum in the world?? They do. It is HUGE.
One of the first things we did when we moved here was go and get memberships. We have gone a couple times already and still we've only seen just a fraction of what there is there.
Here are some pictures from our most recent adventure!

The above picture is from OUTSIDE the museum. Yeah those are my kids way down at the bottom. If you look at the picture below, with the giant Transformer, you can see at the top of the picture the heads of the dinosaurs that were outside. So cool.

They have one section where you get to pretend you are underwater looking at a sunken shipwreck.

Carter's favorite spot of the day.

Meg's favorite spot of the day UNTIL....(see a few pictures below)

Derricks favorite spot. hahaa

BARBIES!!!!!!!

NOW this is Meg's favorite spot!! I love this picture. She could've sat there all day staring at the barbies. That is, until she found the spot where you could actually play with some!!More pictures of the museum to come. I know I took a ton from the dinosaur section, now just to find them.

2011-07-04T18:57:00.003-05:00

Happy Fourth of July!!!

God bless America.

I could go on and on about how I feel about our country, and how I feel about the latest political debates and such, but I won't. Instead I'll just say that I hope this wonderful nation remembers its roots, and that I LOVE being an American.

Thank you to all those who have fought or put in service for this country.

Memphis Temple and the Mammoth Caves

2011-06-27T21:23:00.003-05:00

So we took our time driving to Indiana from Texas. We divided it up into three days, driving from Galveston to Texarkana the first day, then Texarkana to Jackson, TN where our good friends and family, the Heslops live, and the last day we drove from the Heslops to Indy. It was nice taking it easy. Each day we only traveled about 7 hours. Nice. On our way to the Heslops we stopped and saw the Memphis, TN, temple, which totally made the trip for my dad. haha.
About halfway between the Heslops and Indy are the Mammoth Caves, which are the worlds longest caves. We decided to stop and go on a tour inside, and I'm so glad we did. Those caves are rad! We were only able to go on a short tour, but it was enough to make us want to go back sometime.
Anyways, it was a fun trip. I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but my dad took the trip with us to help out with driving the two cars and moving into the house and everything. I'm so glad he was able to help because there is no way we would've been able to do ANY of it without his help. Thanks Dad!
Hope you enjoy the pics!

You may call him Dr. Bo

2011-06-19T20:17:00.005-05:00

Four years ago Bo was just getting his white coat and starting medical school:

Now he is DONE with that and moving on to bigger and better things. Thats right! On June 4th, Bo officially graduated medical school at the University of Texas Medical Branch, UTMB, and is now a DOCTOR!! Woohoo Bo!!!!!!! Now, I could brag and brag about my man and his accomplishments, but instead I'll just include a picture of his name in the program. My only wish was that they had listed him as joining AOA, which is the national honor society for med. school, as a junior. Only 9 out of 220 students joined as a junior. I'm so proud of Bo. He worked and studied really hard so that he could support his family. What an amazing man, husband, and father. We love you!

This last picture is one of us on the airplane flying to TX from WA. Notice both kids sleeping??? Derrick was also asleep. AWESOME!

Before I forget, on the way to the airport, seriously like 5 min. from the airport, Megan threw up all over herself. OH MAN. It was bad. Luckily we got it all cleaned up and put her in her pjs with just enough time to catch the plane. The poor thing. Still, not a bad flight.

The hike to Ancient Lake

2011-06-16T18:35:00.005-05:00

Towards the end of our time in Washington, we decided to go on a hike to Ancient Lake, somewhere past Quincy and near the Columbia River.
We didn't actually make it to the lake because of a steep part of the hike that was too dangerous for our party of hikers. Later, after looking over the area on a map, we realized that we took the wrong hike. No wonder!! Oh well, we had fun!

The gang at the start of the hike.

We saw three snakes on the hike, this was by far the biggest one. It's like 2 feet away from my knee.

This was where we turned around. After this it was a steep drop to the valley below on a rock slide. No, thank you.

We did get to see a fun waterfall!

My Dad

The kids and I enjoying the scenery.

The whole gang, minus my dad, the picture taker.

The parentals.

Derrick slept most of the hike. He was nice and bundled up cozy in that sling.

Washington pictures

2011-06-16T18:16:00.004-05:00

Well our trip to Washington has come and gone. We've had a lot of fun, but didn't take near as many pictures as we should have. All the same, here are some of the random ones we did take. We love Washington and being so near family.

The kids with Uncle Dallin after his soccer game.

Tea, anyone?

Just two more... rrriiiiiiiiight.

My sleeping boys

Visiting my brother Ivin's house! Above is Meg, Rebekah, and Carter. Below has Ivie too.

See? They do get along!

Meg and her cousin Hallie.

This last picture cracks me up. I love the Dallin was stuck back there between the two girls.

Silverwood!!

2011-05-27T12:39:00.008-05:00

A couple weekends ago, we went to Silverwood Theme Park in Idaho with Bo's dad and brother, Dallin. It was a ton of fun, and to prove it we have posted about a million pictures to follow.

Carter was really excited to go on the big boy roller coaster (the only one he was tall enough to ride with an adult). As we got closer, though, he started having second thoughts. We managed to get him on in the end though by telling him he needed to smile when he saw the camera on the ride. He kept his head up during the initial drop (because he had no idea it was coming), but ducked it the rest of the ride. I had no idea what to expect at the end of the ride because it was so fast and loud, I couldn't hear Carter at all. I thought he might come up crying, but instead he popped is head up and said "Dad, I didn't see the camera." What a trooper. He said he had fun but didn't want to ride it again.

They have a train ride around the park that used to be kind of cool, but now they have this lame "sherriff" that talks about himself the whole time. Still, it was a pretty ride.

This was the first ride the kids went on. They had fun, but Cassidy says she was worried Megan was going to slip through the bar so she was holding on tight the whole time.

Our cute little pilots.

Megan looking at the ground, thinking they may be flying a bit too high.

Carter did great on the little kid coaster by himself.

Megan made it one lap with her head up then ducked her head the rest of the ride.

Megan seriously would have happily gone back and forth between the helicopters and airplanes the entire time. She even finally figured out how to get them to go up and down.

On the bumper boats. Not many people get off dry.

Megan's job was to keep her hand on the button at all times. She did great, even when she was getting sprayed.

All in all, a very fun day. The kids were exhausted by the end, and ready to go home. The adults may have been a little worn out too.

Easter

2011-05-27T12:14:00.003-05:00

This year's Easter was pretty laid back. With most of our house packed, we decided to take make this holiday nice and simple. In fact, the Easter Bunny didn't even bring baskets this year, but instead decided to borrow some of our bowls to use, knowing we didn't want to have to deal with packing one more thing. What a thoughtful Bunny. :) Thankfully the kids didn't seem to care. Carter was curious, but I pretty much gave him the same explanation on the baskets, so he was fine. haha.
The kids got up early to look at their baskets, and then after church we went over to our friends, the Smiths, house to do an Easter egg hunt. I've included pictures of the kids with their baskets, along with some pictures of the kids getting eggs. I love the last two pictures because our kids are so sweaty. Typical Galveston. Not going to miss that!
Oh yeah... I also included a random picture of some flamingoes!! We were driving in Galveston on a bridge, and Bo looked down and saw some "wild" flamingoes! Don't know how they got there, or where they came from, but those birds are definitely not native to the island, and yet they weren't in captivity. huh.

There was more candy than that in the bowl, but my kids had already devoured it.

There were still eggs all over to be found, but Meg just decided she had enough, and was too hot, so instead she just went over to the stairs and sat down. Cracks me up. That's more Bo's personalitly than mine! I would've been like Carter and just kept going!

Our Last Playgroup in Galveston

2011-05-27T11:49:00.002-05:00

Here are some pictures from our last playgroup in Galveston. We love these friends and will miss them all very, very much!

Excuse our hair, it was a windy day!

Carter and Brampton

The girls!

Poor Cardston, surrounded by girls. Or should we say lucky Cardston?? ;)

This picture cracks me up! I love my kiddos.

busy, busy.

2011-05-07T17:35:00.003-05:00

Hey friends! Sorry for the long absence. We have been super busy.
We are currently in Washington, at my parents, which has super slow internet, hence no pictures. I keep trying to add pictures, but the browser keeps freezing up. grrr. sorry.
In the past two weeks we have packed, had Easter, packed some more, loaded up the moving truck, cleaned the apartment, Cassidy flew with the kids to Washington to drop Carter and Meg off with the Grandparents and then hopped an another flight to Indianapolis with just Derrick (all in the same day), Bo drove 18 hours straight from Galveston to Indy and met up with Cassidy and Derrick as they got off the plane, Cassidy and Bo and Derrick shopped for houses for 5 days, the Beus family signed their lives away on their first house, Bo and Cassidy and Derrick flew back to Washington, and NOW we are all together at the Baker house trying to get some rest.
phew.
Can you see what I mean when saying we've been busy?
I wish I had pictures for you. Well, I guess I should say I wish the computer would let us add pictures for you. I'll try again tomorrow. In the meantime, we hope you all are well, and we hope we've calmed those fears of yours that we've dropped off the planet. Okay, I doubt there were fears, but if there were, well then you are true friends. ;)
over and out.

Derrick

2011-04-21T17:21:00.004-05:00

Can you believe my little baby is already 2 months old?????
Holy smokes.
I want time to slow down a little. Derrick is changing so much, and I'm just not prepared for it!
I took Derrick in for his two month check up last week, and here are his stats:
Height: 23.5" which is in the 73rd percentile
Weight: 14 lbs 3 oz. which is in the 95th percentile
Head: 40.6 cm which is a nice 67th percentile.

Yep, I have me a big baby and I'm loving every bit of it.
I've told people that he is my skinniest baby. It's true. By this age, my other two had so many rolls, and Derrick just doesn't. Now we know why. He is so long!! My other two are shorties, and have always been short. Derrick has the same weight as them at this age, his just is more spread out. He's getting some chunks though. I love me some baby rolls. ;)

So (Libby), here are some pictures of my growing baby boy:

So serious

A smile!! It's a little blurry, but I didn't want to take the time to focus, for fear I'd miss it.

I think he looks a little like his Auntie Amanda in this last picture.

Can't wait for her to be a teenager

2011-04-18T22:13:00.003-05:00

That Megan-girl.

Oh, how we love her.

On Sunday she received an invitation to go to a birthday party that was to be held in a few weeks.

When she found out she couldn't go RIGHT THAT MOMENT, she threw a fit.

Bo and I, the sympathetic parents that we are, laughed and took pictures.

I mean, seriously, how can you not laugh at her pouty-stubborness?

She walked to the middle of the parking lot, sat down on a parking block, and wouldn't budge. I think she also cried.

She is going to be such a joy as a teenager.

Megan feels things, emotionally, more than Carter. While Carter is the more affectionate, Megs is the one more in tune to hers and everyone else's feelings.

She gets embarrassed so easily. It breaks my heart to watch her when she gets embarrassed too. She'll pretend that nothing is wrong and then go to a different place, be it the other room, or a corner, and sit down facing the wall and cry. It's so sad. I don't know why she gets embarrassed either. I don't know where it comes from.

I was having a bad day the other day, and while in the car (I was sitting in between Meg and Derrick) I started crying because Carter was just being so mean to me. Megan reached over to me, wiped my hair out of my eyes, tucking it behind my ear, and than stroked my face. It was so tender. She later kissed me too. See? She's very in tune to feelings.

It's been so fun having her, but also crazy too. She's just so different than Carter. She's a girl through and through.

Bring on the drama, we wouldn't trade it for anything!

Bo's Uncle

2011-04-08T16:42:00.002-05:00

Bo asked Carter who Grandma was.

Carter's response was that she was Bo's Uncle.

Kids.

Friends!

2011-04-04T20:49:00.004-05:00

We have some great friends here in TX, and with us leaving soon, we find ourselves trying to fit in as much time as we can with them! We are going to miss them.

These pictures are also proof that we have been able to get out of the house a little. The first picture is actually the very first time I went out on my own with all three kids. WOW. We are at the aquarium in the shark cage. Carter is pretending that a shark is getting him, he's not really scared. I'm just adding that because it looks like I'm all happy while my kid is scared out of his mind. hahaa.

Brigham (our cousin AND friend), Megs, and Carter on a ride at Chuck E. Cheese.

Megan, Miyah West, and Carter as we're leaving the aquarium.

Our life lately

2011-04-04T20:30:00.003-05:00

So life at our house has been crazy and laid back at the same time. Crazy because the kids have realized they get complete reign of the house while I'm stuck nursing, and laid back because I just don't have it in me to go anywhere, so we just chill at home and get creative, as you can tell from the following pictures.

The kids still love Derrick and think he is the best. They will NOT stop kissing Derrick. Oh those kids. It gets kind of frustrating because I'll be trying to get Derrick to sleep and then they come over and wake him up by smothering him with love.

Meg is such a Mother Hen. She tries to help me change his diapers, take his clothes off, and if Derrick is left alone, you can usually find Meg over next to him trying to shove a pacifier in his mouth or attempting to put him in her lap. Derrick doesn't much care for that. Go figure.

Carter has really stepped up in the role of Mama's Helper. Granted, he's still hyper and crazy, but when I ask him to get me this or that, or to help in some other way, surprisingly, he has really stepped up the plate and has been such a good helper.

So here are the pictures!! Please excuse messes and anything else. What with a new baby and us moving in 3 weeks, I just don't have it in me to pick up or be as OCD as I normally am. Like I said, things are really laid back here.

My buddy and me. Carter loves Derrick like crazy.

Superheroes to the rescue!!!

Megs

Meg had her skirt on under this, causing it to bunch up and give her the biggest booty. My baby's got back. hahaaaaa

Oh, Megan. This is a typical find at our house. Animals and babies tucked into beds.

Tummy Time!!

Man, my baby is a cutie!!! He has started smiling now too.

Bonding Time. Bo's watching the Mariners play and hoping to get Derrick addicted to the team too.

Carter's Promise

2011-04-03T12:54:00.003-05:00

While listening to President Monson this morning/afternoon talking about the Temple, I was explaining to Carter how he needed to be really good to go the temple, because they don't let "bad people" in them.

After hearing this, Carter ran up to the tv and said, "President Monson, I am going to be really good."

He now wants to take the picture of the temple down from our living room and go put it in his room.

What a wonderful talk.

What a wonderful kid.

I love President Monson.

Derrick's Baby Blessing

2011-03-22T08:28:00.003-05:00

Post Catch Up:

We did Derrick's baby blessing while my parents were still here. Yes, it was a little early, but we really wanted my dad to be here for it. My dad has been part of all three of our kids blessings now.

Bo blessed Derrick on February 27. It was a beautiful blessing. We are so happy to have this little boy in our lives, and I'm grateful for Bo and the way he lives his life, so that he could have the priesthood and be able to give our children blessings.

As for the pictures... yeah, my dad took the ones of the family and of Bo and me, hence the reason they're blurry. For some reason he couldn't figure out how to focus, even though it has automatic focus. Go figure. ;)

I love Derrick's face in the picture above.

Proud Grandpa

Grandpa and Grandma Baker with Derrick

Such a cutie!! Check out his loooong feet.

Mardi Gras 2011

2011-03-22T08:13:00.004-05:00

Post Catch Up:

While my parents were here, my dad and Bo took the kiddos to the Mardi Gras Parade. They met up with some friends of ours before it started and were able to play at the beach before the show. They stood at the beginning of the parade this year, so the kids were able to come home with tons of beads and toys, as you'll be able to tell from the pictures.

The Loot

Drum Roll Please

2011-03-17T13:16:00.007-05:00

And Bo matched to...

Us waiting for Bo's name to be called.

They handed out free stuff while waiting for the Match to begin!

Bo getting his letter!

A little blurry, but you can see the excitement.

We don't think the kids quite get it. Megan was looking in the envelope trying to figure out why we were so excited about it.

Posing with the Leprechaun!! (funny side note: while taking the picture, the Leprechaun made sure to tell me she was a girl. hahahaa)

FYI: Indianapolis was Bo's number one choice!! GO BO!!!!

Pictures

2011-03-07T19:55:00.004-06:00

Here are some random pictures that need to be posted.

The ones with my parents in them are from when we went to this candy store here on the island, La King's. It's a really fun place that has tons of, you guessed it, candy, along with an ice cream parlor. It was fun to go out and enjoy the nice weather and have some fun before my parents left.

Starting his love for baseball early...
My Mom and Meg at La King's having a little too much fun on the quarter rides.

Carter showing off his treats. He was so proud of them because he bought them with his own money.

Proof I got out of the house once in awhile. I kept Derrick in that sling and didn't let him show his head anywhere (yes he could breath just fine). I needed to get out and spend time with the family but was so worried he'd get sick. Look how tiny he is in that thing!

THREE KIDS!!!! I love them, but wow, what an adjustment.

I must say, I make some pretty cute kids. Okay, maybe Bo helped a little...

Mutton Bustin', Round 2

2011-03-02T09:44:00.006-06:00

We went on our annual trip to the Houston Livestock Show yesterday with Cassidy's parents. Carter wanted to give the Mutton Bustin' a try again this year. Last year, the sheep clearly won as Carter was falling off as he came out of the chute. This year, Carter did much better. He still didn't bring home the trophy, but we've already decided we'll probably have to make the trip down to Houston for Mutton Bustin' next year since Carter will be one of the older riders at that point.

The best part was Grandpa Hugh giving Carter some pointers the night before the ride, and also serving as a sheep for Carter to practice on. Before the ride, Carter was fearless. I think if somebody tried to put me on an animal twice my size I'd be a little nervous. But Carter was just super excited to ride again; no reservations about hopping on a sheep whatsoever. Here's the video:

Afterwards, they get the kids together to wave and take pictures. Yeah, that's Carter facing the wrong way the whole time. That kid is funny.

Girl Time

2011-02-26T10:14:00.003-06:00

The Saturday before I had my little boy, hence the huge belly, my Mom, Libby, and I went to go get pedicures!! My mom had never had one before, and I'm all about having pretty feet while in labor, so we headed out for some much needed girl time.

I love the first picture. Libby and I were laughing at my Mom's face. She had such a funny look. Come to find out she had forgotten her glasses and the face was her trying to see what they were doing. hahhaa.

Seriously, look at my belly!!!!! Holy smokes! Man, am I glad he's out.

We had painted Meg's feet earlier in the day, and you should have seen her reaction when she saw all of our feet all painted. Girl heaven! She was one of the big girls! :)

The Story

2011-02-23T09:07:00.003-06:00

I should've written this awhile ago, like a week ago when it actually happened.... but I've been a little busy. Go figure. ;)
My mom and sister, Libby, flew into Houston on Thursday, Feb. 10th, to come visit and help with the baby, and my dad joined in on the fun on Saturday, the 12th. I hadn't had the baby yet, so we stuck with the plan of being induced on Monday, the 14th.
Sunday night Bo, Libby, and I went to the hospital a little after 6 in the evening so that the nurses could start me on this pre-inducing stuff. By about 7 that evening, I was having pretty steady contractions, not painful, but really regular ones about 5 min apart. I hadn't even had the medicine put in me yet. They put the Cervidel (sp?) in at about 8 ish. Libby went home at about 9:30, along with cousin Jackie, who came to socialize for a bit. We were having fun playing games and watching the contractions on the screen come steadily along.
I woke up at about 2:30 in the am with contractions 2 to 3 min. apart and they HURT. Of course they did. haha. Between 2:30 and 5:30 in the am I continued to have those contractions and with the help of a heating pack and the Ambien, I was able to still sneak in a couple minutes of sleep here and there. And I mean minutes.
The nurse took the Cervidel out at 5:30, checked me, and I was only a 2. You know how mad I was to know that I spent the last 3 hours to not progress AT ALL? Grrrr. At 8 in the am, Sandy, the best nurse ever, put the inducing medicine in my system. I then asked if I could have some pain med. I'm a wimp, and if God's going to put pain medication on the earth, then I'm gonna take it. She said she'd go ask the Dr. Not 5 min. later in comes my nurse and my Dr. He wanted to check me and see how I was coming along. I seriously was on the Petocin for 5 minutes, if that. We were all surprised when we found out I was at a good 4, bordering on 5. WOOHOO. That means I can get an epidural!!
I knew that once I was at a 4, that labor wouldn't be long. I had told my parents and sister the previous day that I wouldn't be surprised if I had the baby before noon. They apparently didn't think to seriously on that, because when we called them at 8:30 to tell them I was at a four, and then at 9 to tell them I was at a 7, they were shocked and had been planning to go ride the local ferry for fun.
So yeah, the nurse checked me at 9:00, less than an hour after they had given me the Petocin and I had been checked as a 4, I was already 7 cm. (I guess I should note that at a 10 you are done and ready to push) We called my parents and told them that they had better get ready to head over. At 9:40 ish I started feeling some pressure. And it was significant enough to feel over the epidural. Real pressure. We called the nurse, who was busy getting everything ready since she'd checked me a half hour earlier, and she came and checked me again. She only had to LOOK, not even check, to see that the baby was right there on his way out, and that he baby had a head of hair!!! She hurried and called the dr, another nurse came in, and they started having me push.
My Dr. came in with a med. student and was talking to her when the baby's head started coming out. I had to pause in my pushing so that he could get his gloves on. Seriously. (The babies head was literally half way out when I had to pause and wait for the Dr. to get his gloves on. Can you imagine then waiting for a couple of minutes, not pushing, with a baby half way out of you???? AWKWARD) It only took a couple more minutes of waiting after that for another contraction to come along to help with the pushing, and he was out. 10:01 am. My beautiful, big, 9 lb 3.4 oz. , 22 in. long baby boy. I stayed in the hospital until Tuesday evening, and then checked out. I could've stayed till Wednesday, but Meg was missing me like crazy and that bed was just so uncomfortable.
So there you have it. Derrick's birth story. If it was too much info, I'm sorry, but not really. I want this in my records for both Derrick's and my sake. I use this blog as a journal, and I print it out every year, with copies for the each kid.
I love my little baby SO MUCH. He really is the dream baby. He nurses and sleeps really well. He loves to cuddle. He loves contact. He is seriously so content. I've also got to add that our first two nights home from the hospital, he SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!! Now, of course, he hasn't been like that since, but he has still been a good little sleeper. Every three hours he's up, but he just goes right back to sleep. No fussing, no crying. So good!! Oh yeah, and he takes a pacifier!!!!! Ahhhh.
The kids absolutely adore him. They are always fighting with each other on who gets to hold him. They are constantly putting hand sanitizer on so that they can hold the baby. I love it. Meg can always be seen giving him a kiss on the head. So tender. The only negative thing to the whole new situation is that Meg has become super clingy and possessive of me. She doesn't hold any bad feelings to the baby, she just has a hard time being away from me. It hasn't registered to her that the baby is the reason she isn't getting as much Mommy time. I think me being at the hospital and away from her at night is what did it. I've had to have her sit right there next to me in the recliner when I nurse the baby because she has to be that next to me all the time. Very uncomfortable, but oh well.
Derrick, we love you and are so glad that, in Meg and Carter's words, "the baby is out!" We LOVE having you in our family!!!

My dad and Derrick.

The kids came right when they brought me lunch, and decided they were hungry too. They seriously ate at least half my food. haha. It was really hard juggling the food and the kids on that very uncomfortable bed.
Going home!! He looks so tiny in that car seat!

A good big brother!

First bath!!

A Few More Pictures

2011-02-14T22:19:00.005-06:00

Derrick Baker Beus

2011-02-14T11:13:00.006-06:00

Derrick Baker Beus was born at 10:01 am today, February 14th. He weighed 9 pounds, 3.4 ounces (barely beating Megan as heavyweight champion), and was 22 inches long. He and mom are both doing very well. Here are the preliminary pictures before the rest of the family gets here and the photo shoot begins.

Almost done!!

2011-02-06T21:07:00.003-06:00

So here I am. One week left and still pregnant. GET THIS BABY OUT OF ME!!!

Actually, I've been thinking that maybe it's a good thing he isn't out yet. I've been sick these past weeks with a killer cold, and it would be horrible to have a new baby in those conditions. Not to mention my mom and sister, Libby, come into town on Thursday, so I might as well wait till they get here so I have help with the kiddos.

I went to the Dr. this past week and he checked me. I'm not even close to being dilated. If I had even been dilated to a one or two, he would've induced me this weekend, since Meg was such a big baby (9 lbs, 3 oz), but since I was nothing, it was a no go.

He DID SAY that he'll check me at my next appt, which will be this upcoming Friday, and if I'm still nothing, he'll do what I can to soften me up (ouch), and if I haven't had this baby boy by Sunday, he's going to induce me on Monday, the 14th. My Valentine's baby.

YAY! I'm so excited to know that the end is in sight.

Some have asked me how I feel about having this baby on Valentine's Day. Well for one, I still have a chance of having him before then. For another, all I can say is, if I have him then, I know I at least get to have that night without the other kids, so it's still a date, right?? haha. Honestly though, I don't care. Bo and I usually celebrate a couple days before or after anyways, because we hate the overpriced flowers and the crowds. As for the baby, well it's a boy, and I doubt he would care. If it were a girl, I would probably choose to wait longer, because no girl wants to share the love day with her birthday. They should be separate so that a girl gets recognized for BOTH ;) but a boy?? I don't think mine will care. If he's anything like his dad he won't.

So there you have it! ONE WEEK! Woohoo!!!!

And I'm thinking this'll be the last pregnancy picture of me. Enjoy my hugeness.

FYI: this has actually been my lightest pregnancy by at least 5 lbs. Also, I got two compliments last week on how cute and round my belly was. That made me feel much better.

My poor Carter-Bug

2011-02-05T21:27:00.002-06:00

The other night Carter was walking to bed and he accidently hit his head on the door handle. OUCH! Poor little guy. He got over it though, and I thought that was it.

Wrong.

At about 1:30 in the am he woke up CRYING and saying his ear hurt. Me, thinking it was just from him hitting it on the door knob, told him to go back to sleep and it would be okay.

Wrong again.

He woke up probably every 10 to 20 min. from 1:30 to 3:30 complaining his ear hurt. My poor guy. I think I won the Mother of the Year award though, by being impatient and telling him it's just because he was tired. Finally he went to sleep and stayed asleep.

Can you guess I'm gonna say I was wrong again???

The next morning I told Bo about our night. Carter then told Bo that his ear still hurt, so Bo took out his otoscope, a big bonus to having a husband in the medical field, and checked Carter's ear. Sure enough, he had an ear infection... IN BOTH EARS!!

Aw man. My poor kid! We took him to the pediatrician that afternoon and the Dr. confirmed it. Not only that, but one of the ears, the one he was complaining about, was so bad, that the Dr. said it looked like it would pop any moment!!!!! OUCH.

I'm sorry Carter Bug.

He's on antibiotics now, and he seems to be a lot better. He's had this wierd rash lately on his face and chest too. We're hoping that it's just heat or something. That's why there are so many pictures of him. To show him being sick and to show the red cheeks.

If the camera is on, he's going to pose.

Please excuse his hair.

My goof ball.

Bo's Residency Interviews 101

2011-01-28T20:10:00.004-06:00

So it has come to my attention that some of you readers out there might not exactly know what is going on with Bo's interviews, and I know some of you are wondering why we aren't already knowing where we are going to go.

Well.

This post hopefully will get things straight, and also I'd like to have it all in the records anyways, that way I can look back on this and be glad it's over and done with.

Interviewing and applying for Residency in the medical field is a lot different than interviewing and applying for jobs elsewhere. How so? Well for starters, most jobs you fill out a resume, maybe a cover letter, put in your references, and than you interview. About a week or so after the interview you usually find out if you were accepted to the position or not. This is not how it works for residency, or at least Bo's. I wish.

With Bo, he's had to fill out a resume of sorts, do a letter/essay, have at least three letters of recommendation, a Dean's letter, and to top that off, he's had to take some super hard tests. With all that paper work in hand, he turns it in to the application people, and they give it to the programs that he's interested in. Then you wait. Some programs make you wait a couple months to get back to you, some a couple of weeks.

After you hear back from the programs interested, you are either assigned an interview date, or you get to schedule it, depends on the program. Bo was fortunate enough to schedule all of his, that way he could lump the ones in the same area around the same time. Make sense? Anyways. Some programs will pay for your hotel. Most don't. None pay for you to travel there and interview. nice. After you interview, you get to go home and not wait for a week or two, like most people, but instead have to wait till March 17th to find out where you are going. That's right, I said FIND OUT. No real picking and choosing.

So here's what happens... you interview at X amount of programs, and then you rank them, number one being your most desired destination, and on down to as many programs as you want to rank. Bo will rank 11, since that's how many interviews he had. After you rank it, you submit it to the match system. THEN the programs you interviewed at rank YOU. They rank all of the people they interviewed the same way you rank them, most wanted at the top, least at the bottom. You have no idea how you are ranked, they have no idea how they are ranked. The match system will then match you up starting with the highest on your list to the highest on their list. Very confusing. So just because you rank some place number one, it doesn't mean you'll actually go there, because that place might not have ranked you all that high. Awesome idea, isn't it? Note the sarcasm.

So people have asked me how Bo's interviews have been going. Well they've been going great. Each program has really done it's job at selling themselves. They do that because they WANT you to rank them high, regardless of what they think of you. The more people that rank them high, the better they look. So it's all really deceiving. You could come out of an interview thinking it was great, but really have no clue.

Luckily Bo is a great guy. :) He's got amazing scores, super awesome grades, and like I said, he's just a great guy. Who couldn't like Bo?? ;) We're hoping that with all his hard work, we should be able to go where we want, but then again, you just never know.

So here are the places Bo has interviewed at, in order of interview dates, NOT in anyway ranked. Temple, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; Columbia, SC; Charlotte, NC; Newark, Delaware; Boston, MA; Springfield MA; Sacramento, CA; Portland OR; Indianapolis, IN; and Cincinnati, Ohio. 11 programs. All across the country.

We like all the programs, and don't think we'll be too disappointed wherever we end up. They are all excellent programs and places. So wish us luck!!! And for the sake of not being embarrassed if we don't go to our top choices, I'm not going to list our rank order. You'll find out on March 17th, along with us, where we are going.

Random Pictures

2011-01-25T20:34:00.002-06:00

Here are some pictures from this month that don't fit into a post, but I definitely want on my blog.

My funny kids.

I introduced Carter and Meg to the "orange smile" by very maturely doing it myself. We can't get them to stop doing it now. :)
My parents got us towels for Christmas. They were HUGE. When we got the package a couple of days after new years, the kids excitedly got them out and made them into beds. Bo and I just thought it was funny how small they made our kids look.
Yes, they are pretending to be asleep.

Meg trying to "read." She sat there for like 5 minutes looking at the book too. And no, there aren't any pictures in it. haha.

Who needs toys when you have a box??

Carter's "Birthday"

2011-01-25T20:12:00.004-06:00

Carter's "Birthday", I'm afraid to say, was rather pathetic. Or at least I thought it was. I think Carter thought it was fine.

So Thursday, the 13th, he woke up like any other day, and it wasn't till we pulled out his presents, that he remembered it was his birthday. Than he got into it.

Since Bo had the day off, he got to open his presents first thing in the morning. Lucky duck. I remember not being able to open mine up until noon on my birthdays. hahaa. He got some pirate booty from his Grandpa Beus, 5 dollars in quarters from my parents, a piggy bank, a controller his size for the wii, a dinosaur book, and a Buzz Lightyear toy. The biggest hit so far has been the piggy bank. Funny, huh?

For breakfast he had his normal poptart, but he didn't take one bite. I chalked it up to him getting sick of them. Later Bo made pancakes, but Carter only took a couple of bites. At this I started wondering what was up, because he'll normally eat a couple of pancakes. When lunch came around and he only took two bites of his favorite lunch ever, a hot dog, I really started worrying. Something was up with Carter. He insisted he was fine though and that he wanted to go to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner, so Bo and I decided, why not?

Poor Carter. At the restaurant he ate only a couple of bites off his ribs, and than proceeded to say he didn't feel well and laid down on my lap. Some birthday dinner celebration. When we were all done eating, I asked him if he wanted some ice cream or something, I mean we were even prepared to get the coveted VOLCANO, and he said no. NO! This kid LOVES ice cream and has always wanted a volcano. We knew he wasn't faking it with that response. Poor baby.

So instead of singing happy birthday later that evening with his ice cream cake, we came home laid out towels on the floor, gave him his "throw up" bowl, and let him watch a movie. He didn't move an inch.

So that was his birthday. Sad, eh?

Luckily he was feeling much better the following evening, and was able to have his birthday cake and song with his friends Milo and Ollie, who we were babysitting.

Happy Birthday Carter! Sorry I made you wait for your Birthday, and then on the day you finally got to have it, you were sick. My bad. Hopefully it will go way better next year.

Oh yeah, and sorry you didn't get an official "party." I have just been so out of it, and when Milo and Ollie were there to help blow out the candles, you thought that was your party, and I was too lazy to correct you. So we let you think that yes, indeed, that was your party. You didn't seem upset about it though. I figured, if you didn't know any better. . .

Next year you'll get an actual party.

I really do love you!

2011-01-21T22:47:00.002-06:00

I know, I know. I need to blog. I still have to talk about Carter's "birthday."
I'll do that once I have the energy to get up and get my camera and download the pictures.
For the time being I'll just have Bo do everything for me because i have the worst cold EVER.
Seriously.
You know those cold/flu medicine commercials where the actors are always over-exaggerating their symptoms. They've got there box of tissues next to them, they are way too stuffy, and you just think, "c'mon! No one is that bad!"
That's what I've got. I've got it so bad, that now I think, "wow, they really nailed it. Those are some AMAZING actors." No joke. As I'm typing, I'm having to breath out my mouth because my nose is so stuffed. My throat hurts to swallow. I keep having flashes between hot and cold, although I am getting a little better about that. I also have those darn aches. The achy legs, the ankles, the fingers, you know.
The worst part? All I get to take is Tylenol. Not cool. Not cool at all. And with my hips spreading because I'm in that last month, those aches make it so I can't sleep on them. That means I had to sleep part of last night SITTING UP in the recliner, propped by pillows, because that's the only position that wasn't painful.
I'm done. I'm done being sick, I'm done being pregnant. I'm like 36 and half weeks. That's good enough. Statistically he should be pretty healthy right now.
At least Bo has been around to pretty much take over both parental roles.

*Funny side story, Bo had a class for a couple of hours this morning. I was trying to talk to the kids, when right in the middle of talking to them, in a really husky voice I might add, I had to cough. Immediately after coughing I lost my voice. So here I am, in the middle of a conversation with my kids, and suddenly I can't talk. You should have seen Meg's face. She was so confused. Carter recognized what was happening and ran out of the room calling "You lost your voice! I don't want to be in the same room with you and get sick too!" I thought it was amusing. Luckily I got my voice back like 10 minutes later.

Five Years Old

2011-01-10T20:44:00.005-06:00

Carter turned five years old today. FIVE. Wow. Man the time has gone quickly.

Carter doesn't know his birthday is today.

Why?

Bo is out of town on more interviews. He left yesterday early in the morning and won't get back until LATE tomorrow night. Bo wanted to be there for the celebration, which he should, so we just haven't told Carter his birthday is today. Instead he thinks it's on Thursday. That way Bo can be there for the party. Still haven't answered why? Because I think it would be cruel to tell Carter it was his birthday but not let him open his presents, as we all know he would be begging to do.

He's better off just thinking he got to have a really fun day.

We started off the day with his 5 year check up at the Doctor's. He passed with flying colors. The Doctor even said he was above average for a five year old in the smarts department. How does she know? She had him write his name, and not only did he write it, but he wrote it SIDEWAYS, so that she could read it. She was sitting perpendicular to him, so he wrote his name so that it faced her, proving he could write it. She was impressed. haha

After his Dr.'s appt, we went to McDonalds and played, and played, and PLAYED. We stayed there for 3 hours, no joke. We had friends come and join us, so it made his day.

After that it was an attempt at nap, Star Wars Legos on the Wii, cookies, yummy dinner, cereal, Dino Dan on tv, a bath, and than chat time with Grandpa and Grandma Baker on the webcam.

Yep, he had a good day.

He'll have an even better day on Thursday, his mock Birthday.

Carter, Daddy and I love you. You are such a fun, bright, and happy part of our lives. We're glad we were blessed to have you join our family and that you chose us to be your parents. You are so smart, creative, funny, goofy, and loving. You are the best big brother to Megan, and we know you are just going to amazing to your future baby brother.

I can't believe you are five. It's gone by way too fast. I hope I have made the most of it. I hope you know that I cherish every moment with you. Okay, almost every moment. :) I can't wait to continue our friendship.

So, since I didn't start this blog before we had Carter, I have no pictures of his birth in my blog books. Here are a few pictures of him as a newborn, along with pictures of him on birthdays in the past. I've had fun seeing him grow, and hope you enjoy the pictures!!!

Carter's BIRTH day. I was so nervous for this day. Bo had told me weeks previous to his birth that he thought most babies were ugly, and that he would have no problem saying ours was ugly, even though it was ours. When Carter was born I was so relieved he was a cutie (granted I'm biased, but a LOT of people told me he was a pretty baby... than again they could've been humoring me too). I was glad Bo thought he was cute too. I don't think I could've stood it if he told me Carter Bug was ugly. haha

He had the biggest dimple in his chin and such long fingers.

Carter's Blessing Day. So cute!! He started really chunking up at this point...and losing his hair. Oh yeah, his blessing day was about 3 weeks after his birth on Feb. 5th, 2006. Grandpa Baker was there for the blessing.
Carter's First Birthday! Where'd the dark hair go? Where did those rolls come from??

Carter's Second Birthday. He's thinning out.

Carter's Third Birthday, and the beginning of his obsession with Pirates!!

Carter's Fourth Birthday. The beginning of his craziness.

Five years old!!!! Only, he doesn't know it...

Yep, he's still crazy...

You know you're big when....

2011-01-09T20:24:00.003-06:00

So my self esteem has been taking a big hit lately, a BIG hit.
It seems everywhere I go, someone is commenting on how big I look. True story.
Here are some of my favorite conversations:

While in the elevator in a building, a lady asked me if I was due any day. "No, (nervous chuckle) I still have six weeks." She looked at me with shock, so I added "It's my third child." She replied with, "well our bodies just fall apart on us as we get older, don't they?" I wish I could explain the expression that comment brings to my face. Thanks. Thanks a lot.

Not five minutes after the elevator experience I got the, "You due any day?" "Nope, not till Valentines Day." "Twins??" "Nope. Just one." "Well one's enough." Yep. I'm not making these up, friends.

I've gotten tons of "Wow! You look like you're due any day!" and "Twins??" I've also gotten some "When are you due? Yesterday??"

Really people. Do you think these comments make me feel good??? Would they make ANYONE feel good??? I guess they might make you feel good if you were ACTUALLY due, instead of a month and a half away.

But the best comment of all comes from my OB/GYN.
I had an appointment last week and he came right into my room, smiled at me, and then looked at my tummy and said, "WOW. You look like you're done."
Now maybe this isn't the worst comment, you might think, but let me just tell you... all those other comments? I could maybe shrug them off as being from men, or women with no children, or women who haven't had children in a long time, or whatever. But from a guy that sees pregnant women as his job????? Yeah, that's a hard hit.

I don't think I'll be posting any pictures with this post....

Happy Birthday Bo!!!

2011-01-07T22:03:00.003-06:00

Bo's 30th birthday was on Tuesday, and yes, sadly, I am just now getting around to blogging about it.

He started off the day getting to sleep in, which was a huge present from me. :) He also got to open his present (another one was in transit) from us, and just enjoy a nice casual relaxing day with the family, complete with lunch at McDonalds, which really doesn't get much better, and dinner at Logan's Roadhouse. Oh yeah, and instead of a cake, I made him his favorite... homemade oreo cookies.

I didn't throw a party for him for two reasons, one being that I just don't have it in me to be that creative and organized at the moment, and the second being that it's not Bo's personality to have a party and be social, and he actually begged me not to throw one. Twist my arm, Bo.

Happy Birthday Bo!! I love you so much. Your kids adore you. You are the best man for us. Here's to many more years of fun and aging!!!

Bo blowing out his candles with the help of Meg. Yes, I made more than 4 cookies, I just did four in the picture because there were four of us, and I only had about that many candles anyways.
Scrumptious

Eating out at Logan's

Merry Christmas!!

2010-12-30T23:23:00.002-06:00

Carter came into our room Christmas morning saying, "Santa brought us too many presents!" Umm, why? "Because they don't all fit under the tree!"

Silly boy.

We actually didn't even get up until 7 on Christmas morning, which is fine with me! Although I have to admit, I didn't sleep well that night. It's too much of a habit to wake up through out the night because of the excitement. It's drilled into me from being a kid. :)

Carter was so excited to open presents. Meg was excited, but instead of just wanting to rush through them like her brother, she wanted to play with each and every one.

We open presents one at a time, taking turns. That way we see what everyone got and from whom. Carter was okay with that, but he was NOT okay with waiting for Megan to open her presents, so pretty much he opened up hers with her. Like I mentioned, Megan wanted to play with her toys, not put them away and open more. We seriously had to beg and plead with her to open more presents. Eventually we just decided to ditch her. It was her Christmas morning too, and might as well let her be happy. :) By the time we, meaning Carter, Bo, and I, were done opening our gifts, Meg still had a pile of gifts left to open. haha.

We were really spoiled this year and had a very fun, relaxing day, complete with staying in our pj's the whole day.

Megan and Carter, we love you so much. Thanks for being such wonderful spirits in our lives. Merry Christmas loves.

Thanks Aunt Libby and Uncle David!!!

*side note--A couple of days later, Carter was playing with his medical kit. He put a couple of pieces of candy in it and exclaimed to Bo, "I put candy in it! Now all I need is stickers and I can be a REAL Doctor!!!" :) Doctors to a kid. It makes sense. Everytime he goes to the Dr. he gets a sticker from the nurse and treat from me. :)

Megan got a kitchen which she LOVES. She also got tons of food to go with it, you just can't see them because they are in that basket. And no, the kitchen isn't complete in this picture. Santa wrapped the present and left Bo and me to assemble it that morning. This is pre-stickers and complete assembly.

Carter getting out the batteries for one of his remote control cars. I say one, because he got three this year. One from Bo and me, one from Grandma Sandy, and one from Grandpa Kevin. We raced the cars around all day. Notice the unopened presents on the left? Yeah those would be Meg's.

Megan ditched us opening presents and brought back some of her toys to Carter's room to play. She had gotten these tiny little people from Grandma Sandy, and was anxious to see if they fit in Carter's cars.

Christmas Eve

2010-12-30T23:10:00.003-06:00

We had the kids make snowmen on Christmas Eve, using little styrofoam balls, as a way of killing time on Christmas Eve.

What started out as a fun craft activity, quickly turned into an even more fun body art activity. Oh well, as long as they are happy.

That evening, my cousin Jackie and her family, along with Aunt Buffy, Jackie's mom, and the Warrens, came over for dinner, socializing, and Rock Band. haha.

We had fun eating some way good food. This year we found out that a local BBQ place will smoke your turkey for you, so we had them do that and man, I could've just eaten that and been in heaven. So so good. We also had tons of other yummy food and treats. After dinner we chatted for awhile, and then eventually the Rock Band was pulled out, because you just can't have a party at our house without it!

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures. Sad. We had fun though. Thanks Warrens, Saragers, and Aunt Buffy for coming over!!

Santa!!

2010-12-30T22:58:00.003-06:00

Santa came to our ward party the other night!

I thought for sure Meg would be so excited to see him. Every time she sees him in a show or cartoon, she gets sooooo excited. Like jumping around screaming excited.

In real life? Not so much. I love the pictures I caught. You can see in the first one that Meg is first getting a glimpse of him. In the second picture you can see the beginning of her reaction. She was not down with seeing him in real life. He freaked her out. You should have seen Megan scrambling in Bo's arm trying to get away, while clinging for dear life.

Bo had to take her out of the building for a couple of minutes to calm her down. Once outside, she was so excited, but the moment he stepped back in the building, she was crying to leave. hahaa. She wouldn't even come close enough to Santa to get a bag of treats. Nope, not gonna have it.

Carter, on the other hand, was loving it. He was way excited to sit on Santa's lap, although from the picture you can't tell. When asked by Santa what he wanted for Christmas, Carter replied, "Nothing." Honest. He has everyone so fooled that he is this sweet humble boy. He might be sweet, but he is not humble, and trust Bo and me, he definetly had a list of things he wanted!!! Oh, Carter. We love you.

Fire Trucks!

2010-12-30T22:53:00.002-06:00

So this actually took place in November, I just forgot to post it. One day for story time at the local library, the firemen came and brought their fire truck!

The kids actually couldn't care less about the story time that day or the firemen talking, but the truck???!! You'd better believe they were excited.

Luckily I had my camera on hand!

Zoo Time!

2010-12-30T22:35:00.003-06:00

Bo has had the month of December off from school so that he can go to all his interviews and enjoy the holidays. We have loved having him around!!!

Making sure we got the most of our time with Daddy, we decided to head to the Houston Zoo last week. They had just opened a new section, called the African Safari, or something like that. Meg was happy because we were able to see the giraffes again (they had been out of comission for the last 6 mo. while they were putting together their new "cage").

It was a perfect day for the zoo. The weather was perfect, not hot or cold, and the place wasn't crowded at all. PERFECT. The only downer of the trip was that I almost went into labor at the end. Okay not really, but maybe. I was doing great the whole time, but after two hours my hips, uterus, everything, was killing me. It took like a half hour for my body to calm down and the contractions to go away. Note for next time, make sure I sit down every 15 min. or so. hahaa.

Having fun with the African Masks.

Baby elephants!!!! There are two, right the the left of that pole right in the middle of the picture. They were sooooo cute.

My family of monkeys in front of some monkeys. You can see a black monkey, I can't be bothered with trying to remember the name of the monkey, in the background up high on a rope.

Festival of Lights 2010

2010-12-23T08:11:00.005-06:00

We made our annual trip to the Festival of Lights at Moody Gardens here on the island. This year we went with our friends, the Smiths and Timmermans. We had tons of fun looking at the lights, as always!!

Meg for some reason sat curled up in the stroller most of the night. I guess she was a little scared?? At the end she warmed up and would get excited and point out all the lights. Milo and Carter were the typical 4/5 year old boys. Crazy. They are only about a month and a half apart, so they play together well.

Anyways, it was fun, not cold, and the lights were pretty.

Happy Holidays!

This was how Meg was most of the night....and Carter. haha
Meg, Carter, and Milo

Can you find Megan?

There she is!!! The whole group of kids: Ollie Smith, Carter, Megan, Milo Smith, and little Max Timmerman.

Two wannabe pirates with their boat, excuse me, ship.

Where is Megan again???

Proof she got out of her stroller.... eventually.

Carter wishfully taking a ride on the Polar Express.

32 weeks

2010-12-20T15:59:00.004-06:00

So here's a picture of me at 32 weeks. Okay, it was actually taken like four days ago, but close enough. Don't be decieved by this picture. I'm only dressed in nice clothes because I'm heading to my Dr.'s appt. If its almost any other day, you will find me lounging around in stretchy work out pants and Bo's t-shirts, and I wear them because it's comfortable, they fit, and because I can. ;) Bo assures me that he still finds me attractive. haha.

The rest of the pictures are just fun photos we've been taken lately. Enjoy!

I love this picture, and no, I did not tell Carter to kiss my belly. He is SO EXCITED for his baby brother.

Think he could be one of the GAP models??

Shortly after this picture Carter went and put his Spiderman mask on too. Why didn't I get a picture of that??

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Tennessee

2010-12-13T08:44:00.004-06:00

Our trip to Tennessee was great!! We were there for a looooooooong time though, sorry Syd and Dave!!
We left on Wednesday, Nov. 17th and stayed until the Sunday after Thanksgiving, after which we took off to South Carolina, where I took absolutely no pictures. My bad. Sorry Jana! We did have tons of fun there though!!
So the trip... The kids did surprisingly well on the drive. Meg watched Little Einsteins like crazy while Carter drew. He's in this big time drawing stage. All he needed was a big fat notebook and one of those pens that has different colors that you can choose and he was in heaven.
Sydney and Dave Heslop have two boys, Sam and Logan, who are close in age to Carter and Meg, so the kids had fun playing and hanging out. I think my kids favorite part of the trip was playing outside with the Heslops in their huge yard, and playing Legos. Thanksgiving was great there too, with yummy food and good company. No pictures though. I can't remember much these days.
Our South Carolina trip was short. We were tired and worn out from being away from home for so long that poor Ben and Jana kind of got the shaft. We arrived Sunday night, hung around and talked, went to the park and Chic Fil A, interviewed and drove around Columbia, SC, and then took off early Tuesday morning. No pictures. In my defense, I did try taking some at the park, but it was getting dark and they didn't turn out. We love the Katz family and had fun seeing them. Their two girls, Ava and Ellie, who are also Carter's and Meg's age, were lots of fun to see too. We love you guys!
Anyways, it was a fun trip, and what better way to sum it up, than with pictures??

The drive
Dave has a kayak that ends up being a great toy for the kids

Legos!!

More Legos!!! They seriously played legos everyday.

Chuck E Cheese!!!! Above is Megan and Sam.

Megan and Logan. No, I did not tell them to do this for the camera, it's a roller coaster ride and that is really how much they got into it.

Bo apparently had a great time at Chuck E Cheese too!

Carter would just sit and play this game over and OVER. He liked it because it gave him, in his opinion, lots of tickets.

The Casey Jones Museum. Well actually its the gift shop. Who needs to tour the museum, that costs money, when the gift shop has these wonderful train toys to play with for free???? hahahaa. Yeah, we're that cheap, and lets be honest, this is what the kids would rather do. ;)

These kids were hilarious

Me and Sydney on Black Friday at Walmart!!! It was like 1 in the morning. After that we were too tired to go shopping anymore, and decided to hit Target up at like 8 am, instead of the 4 am that we were originally hoping to do. We got all our awesome deals anyways, so we were happy!

Making gingerbread men, or more importantly, eating them!!

While we were there, we went to Red Robin to celebrate Sam and Logan's birthdays that were the next part. No, they are not twins, their birthdays just happen to be 2 days apart. Happy Birthday boys!

Saying goodbye! I love Syd. She has been one of my best friends since High School, and conveniently she is also Bo's cousin. I married Bo just so I could be related to her. haha. Okay not really, but I do like how it turned out.

I love how Syd has to be hunched over to hug me over my tummy. I also love how Logan snuck into the picture. I also think it's hilarious how I didn't get one shot of Dave while we were there. He was there, playing games with us everynight. I should've gotten a picture of that too. We play card games like crazy when we're together.

Good times guys!!!!!! Thanks for the letting us come visit!!

I'm back!!

2010-12-11T09:16:00.001-06:00

I'm back from my trips, I'm back from my travels, but most importantly, I'm back into the computer and internet world!!
Bo has been interviewing for the last 6 days and took our laptop with him. It's been hard having to spend a week with no internet.

Some conversations

2010-11-23T16:49:00.002-06:00

Carter: (In a very depressed voice) "Why can't I read?? I know all the letters!" Poor guy. I told him I'd teach him. ha. Wish us luck.

This one I don't quite know how to take:

I was at my friend Sydney's church the other day, when a lady she new asked me when I was due.
Me: "Valentine's Day..... yeah, I'm only six months."
Lady: (with shock on her face) "And there's only one in there??"
Me: ( with a nervous chuckle) "Yeah."
Lady: "Well... you look really good!"

????!!!!?!!??

Its a bird, its a plane, its . . .

2010-11-23T09:53:00.004-06:00

SANTA!!!

We went to Moody Gardens on November 13th to see Santa turn on the lights for the "Festival of Lights" they have here every year. This Santa is a little unconventional though, as he prefers to jump out of an airplane and parachute to the ground with his bag of toys. Megan was amazed, and now everytime she sees an airplane flying over she says "ho ho ho" and demonstrates with her hand how Santa came parachuting down. She's going to be a bit confused when she sees Santa coming on his sleigh pulled by reindeer this Christmas.

The whole night was fun; they had a performer there singing kids' Christmas songs, and then Santa came to turn on the lights. We decided not to stay to walk through the lights because it was so crowded. We will definitely be back though. Here are a few pictures of Santa parachuting with a couple elf helpers:

We're in Tennessee

2010-11-22T09:42:00.002-06:00

We're in Tennessee at the moment, going to some interviews for Bo, and visiting our great, great friends, the Heslops.

Don't worry, before we left, we made sure we got those Christmas decorations up!!!! Bring on the Holidays!!!

I love this time of year.

One interview down!

2010-11-15T19:25:00.002-06:00

Bo had his very first interview for Residency in Emergency Medicine this past Friday!! We drove the four hours to Temple, TX on Thursday, stayed the night, and came back the next day after his interview.
Our friends, the Manns, live there and we were so excited to see them!! We had fun swimming at the hotel's pool, playing at McDonald's, and just socializing with them. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of us with the Manns. That's so typical of me. haha. I'm terrible at taking pictures.

After Bo was done with his interview, the kiddos and I went and picked him up and headed out to get some celebratory ice cream. Maggie Moo's. YUM. So, so delicious. I did happen to get a picture of this, however, to mark the beginning of what we hope is a very successful interview season!!

And in case you were wondering, Meg and I shared a Cake Batter ice cream with fudge, twix, and cookie dough mixed in. Carter had Red Velvet Cake Batter ice cream with sour patch kids mixed in. That is so Carter. Bo settled for sampling ours.

ambitious

2010-11-09T22:22:00.001-06:00

Carter informed me yesterday that he was going to join the circus.

Apparently he is "really good at balancing on a ball."

Shoot for the stars.

Feeling Better!!

2010-11-09T21:59:00.002-06:00

Thanks for all of your well wishes!! It really helped brighten my day. :)

Thankfully the flu/cold/bug/deathly illness, haha, was a quick one. Both kids bounced back to normal after a day or so, with me taking just a tiny longer, due to the fact my stomach has something pushing against it. :)

Poor Bo, he just got it today. Fingers crossed it passes quickly for him, seeing as how he has his very first residency interview this Friday.

Anyways, thanks everyone for your comments and concerns!!!

On a side note, some have asked how I'm doing with this pregnancy. I'm doing okay. This pregnancy is definitely harder than the last two. Does it get harder with each one??? If so, how do those women do it who have like 10 plus kids (or even 4 plus kids) Oye.

I've thankfully not had any "morning sickness" in the sense that I'm constantly throwing up. Instead, I get food aversion. My mom was a little skeptical as to whether it was real or not, but I think after staying with her for over a month this summer, she was convinced. I basically just have no appetite. Really. That's why I haven't gained much weight. With Carter and Meg, I was only like this for the first couple of months, but with this one I've had it none stop. No real cravings or anything. With Carter I craved maple bars (when don't I? except for now...), with Meg is was butter. Anything with butter. Oh, how I loved butter. And Snickers bars. I normally am not a fan, but with Meg I loved them. No wonder the poor girl was 9 lbs. hahaa. This time it's nothing. Nada. Okay sometimes maybe a little Mexican, but I can never eat a ton of it. Bo says the one way he can tell I'm pregnant is when I start craving Mexican.

I can eat, but its rare I finish a meal. You should see our dinners. With kids being kids, and me having no real desire for the food, Bo is usually the only one eating. haha. Poor Bo.

I am getting a little better, but getting sick like I did this weekend sets me back and makes me loose my appetite again. I hope it passes soon, because I LOVE using the pregnancy as an excuse to chow down and eat whenever and whatever.

So that's all. This baby is a mover. Oh, how he loves to move. He has definitely got personality. He isn't afraid to kick or shove me if I move in a position he doesn't like. I was bending over to throw something in the garbage the other day, and wow, that kid can pack a punch! The kids are super excited for him. They are constantly pointing at my belly, with Meg exclaiming, "baby!" and Carter saying, "hey brother!" They make me so happy and excited to give them a new playmate. They really are looking forward to this little boy. Whenever I am with my friends 2 month old son, Carter and Meg are constantly at the baby's side and begging turns to hold him. You should see how gentle they are with him. They make me proud.

So that's it. Possibly no one will read this, but I am glad I wrote it down. This is more of a journal entry, and considering how super flaky and absent minded I am with this one, I'll probably want to look back and see how it was, because I'm pretty sure I won't remember as much. My brain is gone.

Getting it over with early.

2010-11-07T11:38:00.002-06:00

We HOPE.

Carter woke me up yesterday at about 5:30 am crying. I ran in to find his face and upper body covered in vomit. Great. I change the sheets, change his pj shirt, wipe him down, put new sheets on, lay towels down, and get him his "throw-up" bowl.

About a half hour after all this, he wakes me up with more vomit, thankfully in the bowl, and diarrhea, thankfully NOT in the bowl.

The rest of the day he spent lying on the couch in a sort of daze, watching cartoon after cartoon. Poor kid.

Megan. Meg spent the day super happy, super hyper. She was a joy to be with. really. That night we put the kids to bed and about an hour later wake up to Meg screaming. She's thrown up. EVERYWHERE. The girl can projectile that vomit. Thankfully Bo was up and helped. He bathed Meg and washed the carpet, while I did the same things I pretty much did with Carter that morning.

She got to stay up an extra hour and was super happy and hyper again. Apparently this is how she acts when she is sick. :) While in the kitchen, after we were finally done cleaning up her mess in her room, she started throwing up again. I grabbed her bowl, and tried having her vomit into it, which she did NOT want to do. Too young for bowls, darn it. When she was done, or so I thought, I sat on the floor with her in the kitchen, trying to soothe her, only to have her start to throw up again. Bo was there, and in his rush, he reached up to grab the bowl, and ended up spilling it's contents all over ME. Luckily it was a moment that ended in laughter, instead of death. :)

I'd like to say that was it. The end of our sickness. Thankfully I can say it was for the kids, at least, but as for me. . . not so much. The kids are happy and eating a little today. No more vomiting. . . yet.

I've always thought there isn't anything worse than being a sick mother, but I can now say that it's definitely worse being a sick preggo mother. My stomach rumbles and cramps. The baby doesn't like that, so he kicks and shifts, causing my stomach to rumble and cramp, causing the baby to kick and shift, causing. . . well you get the idea.

Luckily Bo is on-call today and since there hasn't been any traumas, the other staff is letting him stay home and watch the kids until something big comes in. Otherwise there would be havoc at our house. I'm not doing anything in the mothering department. My kids are in their pajamas with crazy hair. I'm sitting on the couch in pain. Why am I blogging? Because it's distracting me. But I'm done now.

Lets just hope we got the whole winter bug over with early.

Pregnancy Pic

2010-11-03T20:23:00.003-05:00

For all those wanting to see me preggo, here is a pregnancy picture of me at 25 weeks.