Thanksgiving Surprise

We had a wonderful surprise the night before Thanksgiving - David showed up at my parents house to spend the Thanksgiving weekend with us! He'd been in Phoenix for his training and told me that the company wouldn't pay for a flight to anywhere but his hometown, so I assumed he was going to be spending Thanksgiving eating Chinese food and playing X-box at home with his brother, Javi. Apparently his company was happy to fly him out here instead and he'd been planning this surprise for months! Unfortunately (though it makes for a funny story) Javi called me Wednesday evening and said something like, "Is David there yet?" I said, "Um no, you're supposed to be picking him up from the airport right about now, aren't you??" He said, "Oh, so does that mean he's flying out to see you tomorrow?" to which I replied, "He's eating Chinese food with you at our house, isn't he??"

Needless to say, it was a very confusing conversation, and it got me suspecting that something was up. I told my sister that if we got home from the video store and my Dad had had to go "back to work" something was definitely up. Sure enough, my Dad was on his way out when we got back, but I still didn't want to have my hopes up too high. I played it cool all night and was still pretty surprised when David walked into the kitchen around 11:00 that night. He'd never looked so good! It was wonderful to have him with us out here for a few days and we had lots of fun hanging out w/ the boys and my family. He did have to leave this afternoon, but it's not so bad knowing that now it's only a few weeks until he'll be back for Christmas. I'm so thankful for him and for all he does for our family. I'm certainly not as good of a person without him and love him so much! I'm glad we didn't have to spend this Thanksgiving holiday apart.

Bree's back!

My sister, Bree, got home from her mission on Monday and we're SOOO excited to have her back! She served as a Spanish-speaking sister in the Spokane Washington mission and loved it! Now she and I can speak Spanish together which is tons of fun. Bryan is ecstatic to have her here w/ us. He comes in at 7:00 every morning (Bree and I are in the same room) and asks why Bree isn't awake yet. I'm not sure how to explain that it's really like 4:00 a.m. her time. He just can't wait to play! Thankfully she's patient with him and gets a kick out of all the crazy things he says does (for now, anyway). I told her he's a "pesado" at times and shouldn't feel bad if she needs to send him away from time to time. =)

All in all, Bree's doing great. She went to Institute last night and listened to her first secular song this morning. I love that I'm the one that gets to introduce her to the things she's missed the last year and a half. =) We're going to have so much fun these next few weeks together!

At home in PA!

So, the boys and I are in Pennsylvania right now with my parents, and we're going to be here for a whole 6 weeks!! Crazy, I know. David's going to be in Arizona training for the next few weeks off and on anyway, so I figured we might as well come out here and spend time with my family. We don't get to see my parents often enough, and my sister, Bree, gets home from her mission tomorrow! We'll have lots of good bonding time with her, and hopefully the boys will keep her from missing her mission too much. =)

We actually survived the flight out here without too many problems. We were squished with one boy in the car seat and one on my lap the whole time, but thankfully the woman next to me was patient and there were several nice people who helped me with luggage, etc. as we got on and off the plane. David will be joining us for Christmas so he'll be on the flight back with us - as far as I'm concerned, the worst is over! Bryan has certainly made himself at home here and has loved playing games with Grandma and building with Grandpa. Matthew is enjoying running around in all the different rooms and gets a kick out of Phoebe, my family's old yellow lab. We're all looking forward to seeing Bree tomorrow night, and though we miss David A LOT, it's good to be "home."

Surprise!!

So we just found out last night that Baby #3 is going to be a little girl!! Yes, I'm expecting, and I'm a little over 16 weeks along! I've suspected that it was a little girl, and Bryan's insisted all along that the baby in my tummy will be his new "sister," so it was nice to get a confirmation. My brother's girlfriend works at an ultrasound place in the mall so she got to do the ultrasound for me. It was great! (Thanks, Robyn!!)

I have to admit that when we found out, I was really excited but also pretty nervous. I've been so immersed in cars and trucks and superheroes these last few years, I'm not sure how I'm going to handle all the girly things! It will be a whole new world for me! I can't wait to start buying little pink clothes, though. That's the part David's a little worried about. =) He and I have also already started the name battle - we always have a hard time agreeing on names and I think this will be especially hard. There are so many cute girl names to choose from!

As far as the pregnancy goes (for those of you that haven't been around me much these last few months) I was pretty nauseous for several weeks - much more so than I ever was with Bryan or Matt. Thankfully that wore off around week 12 and I've been feeling pretty well ever since. I never show much when I'm expecting, and this time it's not much different, but I am carrying much higher with this one (typical with girls, right?). I also always have vein problems when I'm pregnant and they seem to get worse each time, so I get to wear sexy compression hoes to combat the pain and swelling. Thank goodness it's winter and I can wear long pants! My legs are not a pretty sight!!

The baby is due April 26 (my sister Bree's b-day!) so she'll come right at the perfect time - after the awful cold and before the sweltering heat! Now I just have to survive the long wait. =) I love and hate the anticipation that accompanies pregnancy. I love having something (someone) to look forward to, but I hate how time crawls, especially towards the end! One fun thing is that my sister, Heather, is also expecting a little girl and she's due only 6 weeks before me, so we can wait and plan and dream about baby girl things together. =)

Our first real snow!

Bryan was elated to look out the window this morning and see snow on the ground! He immediately told me he wanted to make a snow angel, throw a snowball, and catch snow on his tongue. So before it was even 9:00 in the morning he was bundled up in whatever snow clothes I could find and out the back door. He had tons of fun and would have stayed out there all morning if I'd let him! At least one of us is excited about the snow... Memories of last winter are still a bit too fresh in my mind!

Changes

So the elections are over. I have to admit, being a very conservative Republican, that I've been leery of Obama's liberalism and smooth ways. That's not to say that I was a huge fan of McCain's, either, but I guess you could say I was more comfortable with the idea of him being president over someone so radically different.

David and I have followed the election process pretty closely, so yesterday evening I was glued to the TV awaiting the outcome. I think Bryan thought we were watching some kind of sporting event - the red team against the blue team. At one point he asked, "Who's the blue guy, Mom?" When I told him it was Obama he replied, "Oh, Daddy's favorite man! Yes, he's winning!!" (pumping his arm in the air). It was funny, especially since David's been a little wary of both Obama and McCain as well. He does come from a socialist country, though, and agrees with many of Obama's ideas. Needless to say, we've had some interesting conversations over the last few months...

With all that said, I was still touched and overwhelmed watching Obama's speech last night. It is an amazing thing the we've come so far as a country that we've elected our first African-American president. Who would have thought even a few decades ago that this would be possible? As Obama outlined last night, we've changed immensely as a country over the last century, and we all know Obama's big thing is about making more changes in the years to come. Yes, change can be good, but it can also be scary and lead to bad outcomes. I'm hoping that the upcoming changes are for the good.

I hugged Matthew extra tight last night after checking on him one last time before I went to bed and thought of the challenges that lay ahead for my children. I hope that, despite the inevitable opposition, our country will be able to hold on to some of its values and goodness. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Obama's changes will allow that to happen... only time will tell. At least Proposition 8 passed in California, proving that many Americans do still care about traditional values - perhaps there's hope for our country after all!

Happy Halloween!

We had a good, simple Halloween this year. We didn't do a lot of the things I wish we could have (corn maze, hayrides, etc.) but I blame that on the move. =) We carved our pumpkins Friday afternoon and then got ready for the "trunk-or-treat" in our neighborhood. I started asking Bryan a couple months ago what he wanted to be for Halloween and he insisted on being Diego from "Go, Diego, Go" every time. He was more than excited to put on his costume and head over to the church.


Matt wore Bryan's old lion costume and didn't try to take the hood off even once. While I took Bryan around to get candy at the trunk-or-treat Matty hung out in the back of our van with David and growled at people as they came by. =) I think it was his reaction to the scary costumes he saw more than the whole lion thing, but it was still really cute. After the trunk-or-treat Jazmin and Landin came over to go around to some of the houses in our neighborhood w/ David and Bryan. Bryan loved every minute of it and got way too much candy for a 3-year-old. Matty got a hold of a dum-dum sucker and sucked the wrapper right off it it! Bryan's favorite treat was a little skeleton he got somewhere, and loved talking to us about all of our bones. Here's a pic showing Matt's "crazy" face. He makes this face whenever he gets excited about something - in this case I think it was an airplane. =) You gotta love kids, especially in costume!

Having fun in the Fall

Why are leaves so much fun?



Bryan calls this little spot in our backyard his "garden."

And Matty loves pretending to mow the lawn. =)

I shouldn't laugh at this...

So here's a video from a couple of weeks ago that shows just how sensitive our little Matt can be. We were at the Brick Oven with Jose, Jazmin and Landin on Jose's last night here, and Matt knocked his drink onto the floor. Some of it got on David's foot and this is how Matty responded to David's reaction. =)