It has begun

A couple of things have begun actually.
First of all, the heat.
Friday it was hot enough for this.

And at 10 PM when I went to bed it was still 84 degrees outside. No more opening the windows for nice cool air at night. Waaa.

The second thing that has begun, looking at houses. In real life. Not just online. This weekend we looked at 14 houses! Only one that I really liked so far and it was close to power lines so it is probably a no. But I am getting a better sense of what I really want and what to expect in what areas and things like that. All the houses we've seen so far have been vacant, which is so nice and easy. The kids thought it was great fun running around a bunch of empty houses checking things out. We have plenty more that we want to look at so I'm not discouraged yet. I just hope we find one that we really love. What brought on this sudden surge of house looking, you ask. Well our house closed on Friday! We have our money in the bank and we're excited to use it as a great down payment. Did my husband spend one dime to take me out to a celebratory dinner, you ask. Well no. And to whomever I may have shared my very depressing demeanor with on Friday, I am very sorry. I am feeling much brighter today.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Now, I am not a fan of watching sports on TV, but I love going to live events. Trent's boss kindly offered him 4 tickets to the Diamondbacks game yesterday. I told him, Yes, take them. Tucker had never been to a game before and we agreed it would be fun to take him. My Mom and Dad kindly agreed to take Charlotte for the evening and since Trent's mom has been out of town all week we decided to invite his dad to join us. By tne time we got all fed and ready, gassed up, Grandpa picked up, Charlotte dropped off, parked and in our seats it was about 7:15 and getting close to Tucker's 8:00 bed time. So I was not surprised when he was not so enthusiastic at first. He didn't seem the least bit impressed that we had seats just 3 rows behind the dugout! He had a sour face and when I asked him what was wrong he told me, "Baseball makes me mad. It's not fair." I asked him if he needed a treat, and he told me, "yeah, that's why I'm mad." After Grandpa, Trent, and Tucker returned to their seats bearing cotton candy, chocolate ice cream, popcorn, peanuts, nachos, and soda his whole outlook on baseball was much cheerier. I realized that Tucker had never tried cotton candy before and was eyeing it with a bit of suspicion. It was even funnier when he put some in his mouth and immediately removed it, his face in a state of confusion and disappointment. He is very affected by texture and would not give cotton candy a second chance. The rest of the ball game was really fun. Tucker enjoyed clapping when the crowd did and "whistling"(the highest pitched squeel known to man) when we all yelled and whooped. He ate a huge amount of peanuts and enjoyed trying to open the shells himself and told me that sometimes he liked to eat the "paper"on the peanuts and did I think that was silly?
It was quite an eventful first game for Tucker. A nice player from the Padres team tossed him a ball on his way back to the dugout! Tucker was delighted since Trent had told him to be ready to catch a ball with his hat if one came our way. The guy in the first row actually handed it to us since we weren't actually noticing the player trying to give it to Tucker, but it was great and he has been carrying it around all morning so far.
The game was pretty slow, but we were having a good time. Tucker even got on the Jumbotron when I had him standing on my lap bouncing around. The D-Backs were behind and sure to lose, but we weren't really in any hurry to leave like so many that left before the last inning. Sure enough at the bottom of the ninth one guy was walked onto first base and as the last D-backs batter was at full count, wouldn't you know it he hit a home run and won the game! It was a great finish!
As soon as the game was over and we got out of our seats Tucker asked if we were going to Nana's to pick up Charlotte. I told him yes and he said,"Good, cause I missed her so much." Is that too cute or what?
Well, with both the kids having big nights and staying up past heir usual bedtimes I thought it just might be possible that they would sleep in a little. Ha! They were both up by 6:30. As usual.

My kids were very pleased with their spaghetti dinner last night.

Just one question. Does anyone else feel like crying by the time they get done shopping at Walmart with two small children, every time?

Emily time

My sister Emily is in town from Oklahoma. I have been spending some time with her and her adorable baby Jonah every day since Wednesday. Tucker and Charlotte are quite taken with Jonah and Charlotte especially enjoys giving him kisses on his face, arms, legs, hands and toes. It is so precious! What a good big sister she'll make.
Saturday we had our girl's lunch. We had a small group, Abbie, Stephanie, Emily and I. It was really great hanging out, eating delicious food and talking. We were there almost 2 1/2 hours! Emily and I went to ROSS afterward so Trent had the kids for almost 5 hours Saturday. I felt bad that I was gone so long, but after realizing that he hadn't had to take them anywhere or pick up the house or cook dinner, I didn't feel bad anymore.
Charlotte is now signing food, more, milk, and Dad in addition to baby! We are loving it. I think I will order Volume 2 this week.

Bedroom makeover

I really want to make over our master bedroom. However, I should probably wait until we move. I am looking forward to finding my perfect headboard. I am excited to make throw pillows and make or buy a new bed spread and window treatments. I have been watching a lot of HGTV lately. Since I have to wait, I enjoy looking at fabrics and whatnot online. I found some really cool fabrics on this page and this page.

A fabulous finish to the week

Fun Fun Friday

Friday was doubly fun. We went to Peter Piper for lunch. We met my sister Sarah and 3 of her friends and their kids. Tina and Jodi and Shauna who are all really fun and friendly and easy to hang out with. Tucker was being a darling big brother as he took Charlotte by the wrist and showed her around the place telling all the other kids that this was his sister.

I had been telling Trent that I wanted to take the kids to the zoo for weeks. Trent never wanted to go on a Saturday and face the crowds and he didn't want us to go without him. So when were we supposed to go? The zoo closes at 5pm. Well Friday before he left for work I asked if we were going to go out that night and he said we could go to the zoo! He took half a day off of work! After Peter Piper we went straight to his work to pick him up, and although this eliminated naptime, we knew we needed a couple of hours to spend there, so we just hoped the kids wouldn't get to grumpy. When we got to the zoo the kids looked like this.

We let them sleep a little bit, but then got going. We had so much fun. The kids got to pet goats and touch stingrays (although I'm not sure that was worth the $3 extra per person since I was the one who enjoyed it the most). Charlotte got more excited by little birds crossing our path eating crumbs than by most of the big animals. The weather was perfect and I am so glad we went that day! What a fun day out with Daddy.

Saturday the most exciting thing we did was wash the cars. It was fun having two little helpers!
We also got our first volume of the "Signing Time"DVD's and all watched it together. We've seen it several times now and Tucker can do all 15 or so signs and Charlotte actually watches this movie which is a first! She did the sign for baby this morning! Cool.

so far this week

Not too much exciting to post about today. Tuesday we went to the family fun van again, which was great. THe weather was perfect and we got to see Raan and her cute kids. It ended around 11:30 and I had planned on going straight to Costco, but my cheap flip flop broke so that wasn't going to happen. We were close to Grandpa's work and decided to go say hi and see if he wanted to grab lunch with us. The kids were very excited to see Grandpa Wes and have him join us for lunch. Gimping around in one ugly flip flop for lunch wasn't as bad as trying to do it all around Costco. We all had a great time (and way too many breadsticks). After naps I put on some other shoes and we made our Costco trip with coupon book in hand, we got some great deals.

I have got to video tape Charlotte's new tricks as nothing else could possibly do them justice. First off she imitates Tucker shooting webs like Spiderman. It is so cute how she twirls her little wrist and makes the shooting sounds! She also has begun flexing her muscles. She first did this on the way to my parents' house on Easter. I didn't really know what she was doing. She was making little fists and straining her face so hard while making this funny grunting noise. I was in hysterics! We finally figured out that she was imitating Tucker again. He always shows us his muscles after every time he eats a meal. It is fantastic. Last but not least Charlotte tries to imitate one more thing Tucker does. If Tucker is playing out back and has to potty, he goes to the perimeter of the yard which is lined with rocks and pees there. Well, sure enough after Tucker had finished his business the other day I saw Charlotte walk over to the spot, lift up her shirt and reach in between her legs. I was dying!

Also Tucker has been doing more of his fantastic drawings. Lately his favorites are "cities" which are tall buildings, "baby Tucker's", whales which always include a spout of water from their heads, and fish, sharks, and chickens.

"Baby Tucker" by big boy Tucker.

Easter Weekend

Saturday Morning

Saturday morning I hid some eggs all around our backyard. Once Charlotte saw what Tucker was doing, and figured out there was candy in the eggs, she had a lot of fun hunting.


Saturday Afternoon

Sunday Morning
I had the most wonderful Easter Sunday spirit in Young Women. We combined with the Younfg Men and had several guest speakers who had participated in the Easter Pageant at the Mesa Temple. A couple of them performed beautiful musical numbers. I cried like a baby and certainly felt the sweet reassurance that the Easter holiday brings that yes He lives! My Savior lives! What a wonderful holiday. Tucker grasped the concept only a little, but I'm sure each year will bring more special learning moments for all of us.
Sunday Afternoon
We had a wonderful dinner with Trent's family and more egg hunting. The kids were exhausted from lack of naps, but we headed over to visit with my family after that. It was a great weekend to spend with family and reflect on our Savior and his love and sacrifice for us.

I can't believe in a few short months this won't be my youngest baby anymore!
Baby Boy is so active, I can already SEE my belly moving when he is "exercising". Crosby was becoming my favorite name, when Trent decided to tell me on the way to Mexico that he doesn't think he likes Crosby or Griffin much. What?! Does that mean it's Henry. I do love that name, but I don't think I am ready to settle on one name for sure yet. Feel free to submit suggestions.
I have been spending hours looking for houses. I have been searching online and narrowing down my choices by location, square footage, garage size (Trent thinks this is the most important factor and is determined to find a 3 car garage.), and other factors. I have mainly been looking at forclosure and bank-owned homes. These aren't usually listed with any pictures, so I have also spent a lot of time driving around town taking pictures of potential homes. We'll see how this pans out. Our house in Provo is scheduled to close at the end of this month, and then we can start making bids. Pretty exciting.
Charlotte has broken a couple new teeth through. One on the bottom right of her center two and one molar on the left bottom! Wow. Maybe once she gets those molars through she can stop doing her signature under-bite chew. It's not easy chewing with only front teeth you know.
Tucker continues to amuse me and everyone else he meets. He is looking forward to starting school next year. He tells anyone who will listen that he is going to be four on his birthday. He is not shy and neither is Charlotte. Strangers just love them.

I Love Ross

Puerto Penasco

I did it! I talked Trent into taking us to Rocky Point, Mexico for the weekend. Yes, we will have to get our conference talks from the internet, Ensign, and possibly someone DVRed them for us.

My parents store a nice trailer down there and we got to borrow it. After only 4 hours of driving, including one stop in Gila Bend ( the bumpy road and McDonalds caused an adverse reaction, or puke, in other words. Nobody else seemed affected.) we arrived right around 9:30pm Friday night. We woke up to a chilly morning and the sounds of the ocean splashing against the shore and seaguls calling to eachother. It warmed up in no time. We had so much fun playing in the sand, finding hermit crabs, flying our kite, collecting shells, and splashing our feet in the water.


I'm sure Trent would've enjoyed himself a little more with a sand rail or four-wheeler to play on, but I was glad to have him there with me, playing with the kids. I love the food in Mexico. We had delicious potato and cheese burritos, taquitos, and tamales, all from the comfort of our little blanket on the beach, brought to us by vendors walking by. We also ate at Pollo Papago in town, the owner Martin (Mar-teen) knows our whole family since my dad has been taking us there for years. Before we left we had some tasty quesadillas and fish tacos. Ahh delisioso. Two days was perfect.This belly isn't from all the good food. 23 1/2 weeks pregnant.


The way home wasn't as quick, since we waited about an hour and a half to get throught the border. Sunday afternoon seems to be a pretty busy time to go home from a nice weekend getaway in Mexico.