Wild Horses

Today is Chinese New Year!  Tonight Len and I are going out for Mongolian barbecue and I am so excited!  This is Kaleb and Noe's first golden year as they were born in the year of the horse.  This new baby will also be a horse.  Len, Hiram, and I are rabbits, Gavin is a dog, and Teague is an ox.  Yep, we make quite the zoo!

Let the Shopping Begin!

On the day of the ultrasound, Leonard took the morning off of work.  After we found out the pink news, he called and asked for the whole day off.  He wanted us to celebrate by going out to lunch.  The problem was, it was only 9:30 in the morning.  I suggested we could celebrate by shopping and then go out to lunch!  The pic above shows how we started a little wardrobe for her.  The pics below show some things I've been collecting over the years, in case we had another girl.  If not, they'd make great gifts.

A little sister outfit to come home from the hospital in.

Three darling dresses (when I was hoping for triplets).

 

I'm so excited to have two girls!

Crib bedding.

Scrapbook.

First Christmas present.

First birthday present.  Yep, we've got a lot of bases covered for her first year!

I was so excited to receive this darling gift on my doorstep.

My sweet friend, Annick gave me this darling frame and the cutest booties and headband.

My dear neighbor, Diane also gave me these adorable booties.

I just ordered these bows for my girls from Groopdealz too.  Don't worry I also ordered some snazzy bowties for my 5 men!

PINK!

I've been dreaming about pink cupcakes for about 8 years now.  One day back in 2006, I walked past Noe's bedroom and saw another girl's name up on the wall beside hers.  I went back for a double-take and only saw Noe's name.  Ever since then I have hoped that little girl would join our family.  Don't get me wrong- I LOVE my sons with all of my heart, and Noe is the best daughter I could ask for, but I couldn't lose the hope of having another daughter too and for Noe to have a sister.

January 13th was our lucky day!  We went in for our big anatomy ultrasound and at the beginning the technician asked if we wanted to learn the baby's gender.  Um, yes please!  Not until the end of the long ultrasound did she say, "It looks like you're having a Princess!"  I think I said, "Really?"  She then said that she had checked 5 times since she knew we had 4 boys and that she was confident it was a girl.  I sure hope she was right!  Although, I am itching to finally have a 3-D ultrasound done, as I've always wanted one and this is my last chance.  Anyway, we had tons of birthday cake left, so instead of pink cupcakes to surprise the kids with, we went to the Party store and got some pink balloons.  We couldn't wait for school to be over so we went to school to surprise the kids there!

 

We went to Kaleb and Noe's class first and the entire class clapped and cheered for us.  It was so sweet.  Their teacher took a picture of us and said he would send it soon (I just emailed him to remind him, ha!).  Next we went to Gavin's class and his class was also happy with our news.  We didn't have our camera with us, but Len snapped one on his phone.

 

Our last stop was to Teague's class who was just coming in from recess.  His teacher ran and gave me a hug, so sweet!  She then took this photo of us.  We were at the school for a total of 10 minutes, so only about 3 minutes in each class, but it was a wonderful 10 minutes that really made us feel a part of our community.

Hiram is still not sure about the idea of having another baby.  Whenever he sees our family photos, he'll name all of us and when he gets to himself he says, "Baby."  I try to remind him that even when we have a new baby, he will always be my baby too.

My main goal for this baby is for it to be healthy!  If it turns out to be a boy we will love him with all our hearts, but here's hoping it really is a girl!

Half-way!

Pregnancy!  Is when I am the least patient with time!  I'm glad to be half-way done, but half-way still to go is a long way.  I just can't wait to meet our new little baby and to have our family complete.  I do want baby to grow and be healthy and strong though.  And we have a ton to do to prepare for the arrival- buy an eight-passenger car, buy a bed for Hiram, buy two new dressers, maybe buy a new kitchen table, paint new artwork, etc., etc.!  I keep telling my kids not to wish their life away waiting for the future, so now I need to take my own advice and be happy in the moment, ha!

Gavin's Party

I always feel like Gavin gets jipped having his birthday the week before Christmas.  However, I realized that he has had more "friends" parties than any of my other kids, so maybe he's not so jipped after all!

We did postpone his party to January though, so everyone could enjoy the holidays with their families.  I always enjoy a party, especially when there's tons of balloons everywhere!

Loot bags, the thorn in my side of party-planning.  I want something that will be used, and not just dumped in the landfill, but I also have a small budget.

I think sunglasses, pencils, candy coins and bracelets are a happy compromise!

I do think the sunglasses were pretty fun.  I hope the kids like them!

Gavin wanted a "Thomas" themed party, but I told him we were just having a "birthday" themed party this year.  We did have Thomas coloring sheets though.  As well, we played pin the nose on the clown and pass the parcel.

Then it was time for cake!

Happy Birthday to You!  Make a wish and blow out the candles!

I was so glad I decided to just get a cake from Costco instead of baking one.

Let them eat cake!

Gavin ended up inviting his entire class from school.  15 of the 22 little people were at the festivities.  (I'm so glad the party was only 2 hours long!).  Gavin had a great time with his friends,

and got some very nice gifts too!

Happy Birthday Gavin!  We love you!!

Frozen

We were originally going to take the whole family to see the movie Frozen.  However, after going to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 on New Year's Eve, we decided that Hiram is still too young to go out to the movies.  Len said he would much rather stay home with him, then watch the movie after we buy it (yep, we have all the Disney animated movies).  At the last minute, Gavin and Teague wanted to stay home too. 

 

So I took Kaleb and Noe out for our January date!

The Friend

You might remember my post BoM Feast from last year.  Well, our family's letter made it to The Friend Magazine!  Woo Hoo!  I wrote to the magazine last year thanking them for their select readings from The Book of Mormon.  I also asked if they would continue those reading charts for the rest of the standard works.  They wrote back that they weren't doing one for the Doctrine and Covenants (so Len compiled one for our family), but that they were already working on one for the Old Testament.  They also asked questions about our family scripture study habits, and asked each of the children how reading the scriptures as a family has helped them.  We sent back our answers, then they asked for pictures.  I emailed them six different pictures, then they combined three of them to make one photo of all of us.

 

Noe from this one.

 

Len and Teague from this one.

They added Noe to the right side, and added Len and Teague between me and Gavin.

The final image.

 

We were so surprised that our photo was so large in the magazine, and that our letter took up a whole page.  The thing I am most excited about is that they took my suggestion and included the story of Zelophehad's daughters in their Old Testament reading chart.  This is the first time that story has been published in any LDS material.  It is a beautiful story that shows Heavenly Father loves His daughters just as much as His sons (and it's where we found our daughter's name, we just spelled it differently).  I hope now it will be brought to the attention of more people!

The cover is small (since the image online is only 91x118).  However, you can read the entire magazine here.  I sure hope next year there will be another reading chart for the New Testament!

January Decor

During Christmastime, I searched high and low for a "winter" snowman (instead of a "Christmas" snowman) and I finally found one at Lowe's.  I love how our January mantel turned out!

The snowflake frames I finally finished got moved from our Master bedroom, down to the dining room table centerpiece.

This is a combo of the Christmas Discovery Park and the Olympics sets.  I think it's great winter fun- sledding, ice skating, skiing, snowboarding, snowball and snowman building, a horse-drawn carriage ride, and yummy hot pretzels and cocoa!

 

*I also finally painted my seasonal bear (that I bought back when we lived in Provo, so it's from 1999!), but I need to drill the holes larger to connect the pieces with twine.  He has a fuzzy blue coat, hat, and mittens for January.  I also need to paint my seasonal bunny cookie jar lid holding a big snowball and my 7 "snow" pieces to hang from our stocking hooks over the fireplace.  It's been 15 years, maybe this year I'll get all of my painting projects completed!

Time really flies!

I am all caught up with 2013!  Now onto 2014 (I can't believe today is the last day of January already, geesh)!

I am positive that there is a massive black hole sucking time, pulling in the years faster than I can live them. I try to be present, to live in each moment, but time has wings and isn't afraid to fly. (I love this quote from Chandra's blog.)

December Date

Leonard and I got a date for ourselves in December.  We went to dinner and a movie.  We had yummy Vietnamese food at Pho Truc Lien, then...

...went to see "The Hobbit 2:  The Desolation of Smaug."  It was a fun time and now we're anxious for The Hobbit 3!

Christmas Day

As soon as we got home on Christmas Eve, the kids went straight to bed.  I love their annual sleepover (which they now do every weekend!).

Hiram still prefers his own bed, but I think next year he'll join them!

Christmas morning!  Santa came!

We began the day with prayer, then jumped into gift opening.  Our kids only got 4 gifts each this year, and they were so happy with that.  Their 4 gifts were:  Christmas Eve pj's, their stockings, a gift from Santa, and a gift from Mom & Dad.  Of course, all of the grandparents sent money too.  We used that on some family outings and bought ourselves a new TV and some Living Scriptures DVDs.

Our traditional stocking poses.

I can't wait for next year- to have another little stocking for this baby, and to have our family complete.

 

Len was so thrilled to FINALLY get Civilization 5.  He's wanted it for years, but our computer couldn't handle it.  Since we had to get a new one in the fall, we were ready for him to bring on the games.

 

NUTELLA!!!

Kaleb was so excited to get a Radio/CD player for his room with 4 new CDs, including the deluxe album from his favorite band- Imagine Dragons.

 

Noe loves her La Dee Da dolls.

  

Gavin loves his new trackmaster train set.  After years of the take & play, he's loving his new motorized trains.

Mr. Alphabet Teague was so happy with all of his ABC gifts.

Hiram, our other train engineer was so happy to get more trains too.

Since we didn't know if baby #6 was a boy or a girl, we got both the Ballerina and Astronaut Little People toys.

 

*The rest of the day was mainly spent playing.  Santa chose well, because all of the kids and Leonard were entertained all day.  I'll admit I was feeling rather lonely.  I wish we could spend the holidays with all of our extended families, but luckily they were just a phone call away.  We also ate lots of yummy food!