Baby May #4

Monday was the ultrasound to see the baby.  Adam and Ryan came with us to see- they are so excited for the baby!  Garett, well Garett could care less so he went to a sitters'.

Here are some of the pictures:

profile

Giving us a "thumbs up"!

Just sucking on a hand

And of course:

(sorry if you don't like nudity)

So we will yet again be having a boy!  He wasn't real cooperative for the pictures but it is so much fun to watch the ultrasound!  Now we will have to begin the long process of deciding on a name.  We have such a hard time thinking of boy names!

Giving

The kids get so excited about Christmas- the presents and Santa and all the fun things that we do.  Sometimes a little too excited! (like last year when the kids got up at 2am)

One of our traditions is giving a little gift to some of our neighbors and caroling to them.  The boys are starting to actually sing now, so I think we've gotten a little better at it!  This year we did grinch cookies with a little poem about letting our hearts grow with the real meaning of Christmas.  We sang "Jingle Bells" (cop out I know!).  One neighbor lost their cat while we were singing, one asked us who we were (EVERY year she asks that- they live right across the street and we've done this for about 8 years), it was SUPER cold, the Ryan was freaking out about the people owning pets.  Needless to say there was a lot of crying and whining- but we completed our task and came home for some hot chocolate.

The kids like to make gifts for their teachers each year.  This year I completely forgot about teacher gifts until a couple days before school got out so we had to improvise.  I got some fun hot chocolate stuff (including flavoring from the dollar store- hope it tastes good!).  Then the boys colored marshmallows with some food markers to make designer marshmallows or snowmen.  It turned out great!

Then, of course, I had to make some visiting teaching gifts- hot chocolate on a stick.

And we can't forget Ryan's tutor!  This one was fun- I wrapped a diaper box and filled it with food for a family night- soda, pizza toppings, pretzel crust mix I made, cupcake mix and popcorn

Tis the season!

Keeping Busy- Traditions!

One of our traditions is that the kids get to pick out their own ornament each year.  It is tons of fun seeing what they pick out- what their likes are for the year or just what caught their eye.

This year it has been hard for me to do things with the kids- I just don't have a lot of energy, what with being sick and pregnant.  But I still want the kids to have fun and I love doing things with them so when I have a streak of energy we do something fun.

When Adam and Dad went to a Pokemon tournament we just had to have our own fun at home!  We made fruit loop wreaths and candy canes (we probably ate half the box of fruit loops!) and then made some tree ornaments out of twigs from the yard.

Garett was in charge of FHE treat so we made my famous super easy 3-ingredient peanut butter cookies (remember no energy) and turned them into reindeer for something festive.

Then, Ryan was in charge of the activity for FHE so he decided we should make a Lego nativity.  We each made a different part of the nativity and it turned out great!  We have a book that is the story of Christmas and all the scenes are made from Legos- the kids LOVE it and this was right up their alley!

And then of course we had to put up the Christmas lights!

Putting up the Christmas lights means that the little men get to go up on the roof with dad, which means mom has to stay in the house and pretend that it's not happening so I don't have my stomach in my throat the whole time.

Decorating the Tree & Gingerbread Houses

With family visiting, it was even more fun doing our traditions WITH grandparents!

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Dad getting the train to work

And it works!

We make gingerbread houses every year, but since we had so many people this year, we just used graham crackers.  It still turned out great and everyone had fun!

Merry Christmas!