You're the one with the million kids...

I went to a basketball game to watch Luke play a few weeks ago. I met a few people there. The girls ran around a little and then we played on the playground. Then I went to a baby shower last week and one of the girls I had met was at the shower. I reintroduced myself and she said, "Oh yeah. You're the one with the million kids right?" And I said, "Well I only have 3, but sometimes it seems like a million." I couldn't believe that she said that. Nonetheless, that was my first negative comment about how many kids I have. So I had to record it.

And on this fantastic Mother's Day I have a lot to be grateful for including my 3 beautiful, mostly sweet girls and my husband who is always doing everything possible to please me. And today his cloth covered cookie sheet with raisin bran and a toasted bagel did not disappoint.

He got up and fed and bathed the girls. Then he had them bring me breakfast in bed after letting me sleep in and then left to practice a musical number for church. All I had to do was get us dressed and hair combed and get to church. We even made it on time!

Gracie cried and cried when she didn't get one of the chocolate bars they handed out to the mothers. I played the piano perfectly for the primary's mother's day song and we got a good nap in, after church that is! We ended today with a bike ride to the park and then caramel popcorn while we talked to our mothers and other ladies who are special in our lives. I am grateful for my mother and all that she taught me and is still teaching me. And to quote the Book of Mormon, I am grateful my mother "knew it."

Here are some front runners from my ongoing home photo shoot this week. Hopefully more to come if I don't drive my kids crazy. :)

Gracie can read!

A couple of weeks ago we were going to go get milkshakes at sonic- Cherry chocolate is our favorite- and Gracie said from the back of the van, "Mom is Sonic spelled SNK? And I was so shocked I said, "Yes!" And she said, "Is food spelled FOD?" And again, I was floored.
Well today, thanks to my SIL Megan, I taught Gracie about when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking. To my surprise, Gracie caught on. She was able to read all the word cards on our boggle game with just a few hints and helps for about 60 3-4 letter words. When she read the word pie, I said "Maybe we should make you a pie for learning to read." Then she read the word cake and she said, "I want a cake instead of a pie." So we made the cake and frosting on the back of theHershey's cocoa can that came highly recommended again by Megan, and I wrote a secrete message on top. As a final test, Gracie had to read it to cut the cake. We shared it and her success with our best neighbors and brushed teeth and got in bed. I am super excited for my 4 1/2 year old Gracie. She has worked hard with me and at her awesome preschool reading every nap time and night. She also loves doing and watching my private speech therapy. She would make a great speech pathologist if she can get her slightly lispy S figured out. She works hard at that too and is a great big sister to both little sisters. She and Katie like to play quietly in their room with barbies and Polly pockets in the morning if we are still sleeping. She wants to be a babysitter and a helper to clean up and get groceries when she grows up. She wants her own computer to work like us and be a speech therapy girl. She says really good prayers from the heart and has learned her lesson about not waking "anyone" up if they are sleeping, something that was really hard for a while. We love her and are super proud of her reading skills. Go Gracie!

My life is awesome... That's why I gotta record it. Lol!

No more 3 month blog break!!! But after you read this "one day in the life of" incident, you'll know why i have not.

Can you believe while I was "quick" in Joann's fabric, lexie woke up screaming bloody murder to eat so I decided to nurse her in the chairs in back. Then while I was doing that Katie had to go potty so Gracie said she would take her ( i was unsure about this but shes newly potty trained so we had to). Next thing I know. Gracie yells we have a problem. And then katie crying. I had to stop feeding, left my purse and cart, and when I opened the door both girls had their pants down and there was a big puddle on the floor. Katie made it, but apparently it made Gracie need to go too (you know how that is) but she only got a little in the toilet and the rest on the floor and pants. Aaahhh.

Both girls were being so good and they were so so sad. I had to go put lexie down back where my cart was and had Gracie watch it while I helped Katie get dressed and cleaned up the pee. Then Gracie was crying because she was all wet. lexie was all smiles and Katie was falling Asleep in the cart. We hurried outta there and Gracie rode home naked. When we got home lexie had a nice yellow blowout in her carseat.

Needless to say this is why I don't go to the store very much with all of them and why my simple goal was to buy some elastic. And why if i do go, we are all dressed cute so at least we start looking like we have it all together and people dont look at us so bad cause at least we look cute when everything goes nuts. Oh crazy life! I did get my returns done at ross w no problems prior to that. So all in all successful day! Ha ha.

Here's the proof before I go...

Yep here is proof of my big fat belly for my next pregnancy. And how everyone commented on how I look like I am going to pop. But for good reason. This baby is set to be at least 8 lbs and we are going to find out tomorrow. I think this is my cutest pregnancy yet. But definitely my most painful. I feel like my loins and ligaments are going to tear out at any time. That is one of the reasons we are scheduling it tomorrow. Others are because Luke works 1 hr 15 min away, I am ornery because I thought she was coming already because I have been dilated so long, scheduling child care with friends is easier cause we are far from family, and the girls just want her out too. Gotta get on with this next phase of our life and I think I have done all that I possibly can to be ready for her. So wish us luck. I might go natural, I might get an epidural, but we will see how my body reacts to pitocin. I leave at 5:30 and Luke will join me around 8:30 after dropping off the girls. Here goes!

Baby Rant!

No baby yet. I don't know why. I am dilated to 4+ and I have tried a lot of things to get labor started. I even ran intermittently while walking the other day. Everything I have tried has just made me sore and exhausted but I am getting a lot done. Reorganized the garage recently. Sewed some projects I had planned - recovered her carseat, made a carseat cover you know to protect from weather and peekers while sleeping, and sewed me a nursing cover. Sanded and painted my dresser yesterday and sewing pillows for my bed. Now I feel like I might have to do it again because I am not sure I like the color. Reorganized and cleaned the pantry closet. Organized our office and got rid of the paper avalanche on my desk. Super cleaned the whole house today. This baby is chicken to come out I think because I was having contractions, 1 every hour on New Year’s Eve after the Dr. checked me vigorously that day and told me she was almost 8 lbs. We really wanted a New Years baby! And we wanted to have her while Luke has been home with Christmas break. Luke took this Thursday and Friday off and worked on our business at home because we thought I would go into labor.

We thought 1/2/13 would be cool, then 1/3/13 would be cool. Now I think any day would be cool. I do think we are having a chicken though not a baby! How do I make her run out of room or get braver to come out? I don't blame her though, this is a pretty scary world she is coming to. I guess I will give her a few more days to be ready. I don't know why but something tells me not do castor oil even though I have heard it works. There are so many people who keep messaging me and calling me to see if we had her yet that, while I feel like it's so awesome that so many people care, it is making me anxious and frustrated that she isn't here yet and I have to keep telling them no. (I am actually not due for 1 more week.)

So Karlie, Lexie, Rosie- whatever your name is, you better hurry up or I am going to drive Luke nuts with my orneriness. He thinks I am taking it out on him. And with my moodiness, I am sure I am. It's a good thing he loves me. Wish me luck for 1 more “fat” week of comments that people just have to “pop,” (see I can be clever too), and I will let you know as soon as she is here. Whenever she comes, it will be right! Hollie

Halloween Costumes 2 and 3!

It's no secret we love Halloween at our house. But I haven't enjoyed having double the candy hanging around this year though. Gracie had to be a fairy princess for school. I can't get over how cute her hair is! Katie of course had to dress up too if Gracie was so we were late to school that day. Katie loves to put on makeup and she even let me do her hair without crying. If only we could look this cute every day!

 

 We invited some new friends from church over to trick or treat with us. As you can see Gracie dressed up in an Asian Mulan dress and Katie was a barbie princess in white.

It was a fun night and we were glad that the girls had enough after about an hour and we could go home and hand out our necklaces. Oh that's right I haven't told you what we did. We got oodles and oodles of mardigras beads at a pirate parade we went to and didn't know what to do with them, so we handed them out at the Trunk or Treat and for Halloween instead of candy. People really liked it. At the party, Luke hid behind hanging black garbage sacks in our trunk with the necklaces and said, "Give me your neck!" to kids when they came by our van. They had to lean their head forward into the dark trunk and then Luke put a necklace on them. They kept coming back because it was so fun to be scared. On Halloween, Luke sat in the driver's seat of our van with a goblin mask on with the window rolled down but in the dark of our driveway. People would come up and get their necklaces from me and then turn around and start walking back... right past the open window and Luke would get them every time. A lot of times, it was the unsuspecting parent that waited just at the driveway while their kid went up to the door and when they turned around they scream or jump at Luke's scare! Luke had blast. He even got one girl twice who came to our house a second time and forgot! 
 

It was a Happy Halloween!

Halloween Super Heroes!

 Gracie wanted to be spiderman for Halloween the whole year because she had this suit that our friend gave us. So I said she could be spider girl and make a skirt and mask for it. She didn't want the skirt in the end. Katie became supergirl from another friend's costume. And I made Hulk and WonderWoman costumes starting with just under 3 hours before our ward trunk or treat. We had the hardest time finding pants at Goodwill for Luke to cut up. I love how his green paint turned out. And I wanted to work on mine just a little more but ran out of time.  The crown, cuffs, belt, and W on my shirt are all out of a gold pleather, while the boots I made from red pleather and copied how they do it in professional costumes and just wore them over my heels. I had planned to add the authentic white stripe down the boots too but ran out of time. I practically murdered the stars on my skirt because I had to sew them on so fast but it turned out well. Probably sturdier than most costumes you buy in a store. I can't believe how shoddily they are made.  Gracie wore a different costume for every Halloween thing we did this year so stay tuned for what she was for school, and for Halloween night. ;)

 

 Luke had to show me how he could rip his shirt off when we got home! And then he got my nice clean bathtub all covered in green paint. Oh well, it was my idea. You never knew that Wonder Woman and Hulk were a couple did you? 

 I made the props for the "fake" photo booth at the ward trunk or treat, like they do at weddings right now. I think it is such a cute idea to encourage people to have fun taking photos. Hopefully I can use them for other purposes too and my work for the one night won't go to waste.