Recent Stuff

Been a while since I have written. While nothing super exciting has happened, enough to write about in no particular order.





Carter, Matt and our nephew, Derek, attended a Real Salt Lake game 2 Friday night's ago. All of theirs first professional soccer game. Kinda of a long story to write, but one of such generosity, it must be shared. Matt's coworker handed Matt an envelop 2 Monday's ago and said it was for Carter. When Matt told me this, I was worried it was money, but it wasn't it was 2 INCREDIBLE seats to the Salt Lake Real game for the coming Friday night!!!!! And a little note that said, "to get that arm well soon!" I couldn't believe the kindness of his coworker! I was almost speechless when Matt told me it was just too nice. So you say, but what about Carter's cousin? Well, A few days before our sister-in-law, Derek's mom, called up and asked if Derek could spend the night Friday night because they were going to be out of town and Derek's brother and best friend were going to the Real game and would be out late. So when I called to tell her about the soccer game and how I wasn't sure if Derek would want to come and hang out with me, Ella and Linc, I said I could look and see if there were seats close to us if she wanted. She thought would be a good idea and low and behold there was a seat right next to Matt and Carter, so she got it for him and the three of them got to go. It was meant to be!!!! Carter had a lot of fun and Matt did too. It was a wonderful guy night out for them and I felt so grateful for the kindness of Matt's coworker, who truly went above and beyond.

Matt has started his new job! His official title is Joint Venture Liaison. Or at least that is what I think it is. He started last week. It is going to be difficult and a sacrifice for all, but hopefully worth it in the end.

Garden update: I watered my garden on Friday morning before I rushed out of the house. I was proud of myself for being up early enough to water it, but like an idiot, I forgot to turn the hose off! So it was on for over 2 hours before I realized it and called my kind neighbor to have her turn it off. I haven't watered it since- boy was it muddy. I know one should put it on a timer and call it good, but I actually really enjoy watering it every other morning. It also allows be the opportunity to pull some weeds and hem and haw over the growth from the day before. I did pull my first tomato for the plant this morning. There is no blossom rot! All my other red-turning tomatoes have blossom rot! I know the cause, again-watering, but am not sure what to do about it. Some toms have it and others don't? I don't know. My corn is, I don't know what to call it- seeding/pollinating/something and so I am getting little corns finally growing on my fence height stalks! very exciting!

Carter gets to ride his bike tomorrow!!!! YEAH!!!!! That should actually be the title of this post. THE most exciting thing about the summer so far. He still has his cast on, but it has been 6 weeks since the initial break and so the Dr. said tomorrow was the lucky day. What could be better? He has been very good and patient, but still.

This weekend is girls getaway with Matt's family. I am very excited, except for the heat that St. George has. But none the less, the condo has AC and so really it shouldn't be too bad. It is always super fun and I am sure this weekend will not be a let down. Maybe I will post pics from it so as to encourage other family members to come next time!

Last week I went to the Oquirrh(sp) Mountain Temple open house twice! Once with the family on Tues. night and then again on Friday morning with my non-LDS friend. The visit with the family was good. Not the craziness that the Draper Temple open house was. Much quicker and thus the kids were much better behaved. The temple was beautiful! One of the prettiest I have seen. Friday morning, we went super early because it was the second to last day it was open to the public and I was terrified of having HUGE lines and since we didn't have reservations- of them not letting us in. But we got in fine and there was NO waiting, which was wonderful. Once inside the temple it wasn't as busy as Tues night either. All that couldn't have gone better. It was interesting going through the temple with someone who wasn't LDS. It makes you think about each of the rooms and what takes place in there more. I also seriously wondered what was going on through my friends mind. She did go to the Draper Open House, so it wasn't a complete surprise what the inside of a temple looks like, but still. She is devote in her faith, so it makes you wonder if she thinks we are all insane and going straight to hell, or want to make her dump in that baptismal font. I would sure take the second, cause I have had enough friends think I am going to hell. We didn't talk to much about her thought about it afterwards because we also have 5 kids with us- 2 of hers and my 3. And I while I would love to talk more in depth with her even now about it, it can be a difficult thing to broach. Anyways, I love the temple and it was so wonderful to be able to go and have them sooo close to us.

I am now 32 weeks along. No names yet! Now considering Sophie or Sofie. Who knows? I have no major complaints. Yesterday I did have these crazy, SUPER painful contractions and even felt it in my lower back- is that back labor, stuff?!!!! Had them during dinner and even starting crying it hurt so bad. Poor Matt was giving me the most pathetic faces ever. I don't typically have too many contractions prior to labor, but have had them increase with each child. So I don't think it was anything too out of the ordinary. Other than that- I am fine. Feel like I have for forever till this baby comes.

Well, that is all the 'big' stuff. My parents come next week. While should be fun. Have some fun stuff planned with them. Until then---

My Pride and Joy!

There is a lot of things I should post about that has happened in the last few weeks- 4th of July(which was fun, but wore me out more than Christmas), Family reunion(again fun, but tiring), Matt's new job(which isn't going to be fun for me, but I suppose I will write about that another time), and updates about Carter's arm(looking good- finally), but I would rather right about my pride and joy, My Garden!!!!

I grew my very first garden when we lived in Louisville. It consisted of like 13 tomato plants, 3 pepper plants, green beans and watermelon. It all grew wonderfully, except for the green beans and the watermelon, which did grow great, but the bunnies that lived in my yard ate any of the plants fruit, which left me with just the plant. Anyways, but I rarely watered it and it all grew like crazy. It was wonderful. And I loved it! I would go out morning and evening and fawn over it. I would count all the new tomatoes. I am sure Carter, who I would drag out there with me thought I was nuts. But you get that way about it, or at least I do.

So that was like 3 or 4 summers ago. Mhe summer after my Louisville garden we moved from an apartment in Boise to a house sometime in May and I was pregnant and didn't want to worry about gardening. Then last year, again we moved into our house in May and while I wasn't pregnant I felt like I had enough going on with moving in that I all I did was plant a few tomato plants in a grassless spot in the yard. I didn't stake them and I didn't water them, or at least very little. I did at some point dump some Miracle Grow on them and while the plants did grew tons, they produced very little fruit. This year, I was going to do it and do it right.

So in April, I signed up for a beginning gardening class taught by the extension office here. I felt like if I was going to put a lot of money and time into this garden, I need to know how to grow a garden in Utah, with its lack of water, crappy soil and weird bugs, but no bunnies- at least not in my yard. Anyways..... The class, while not super cheap, lasted 3 weeks and provided me with a wealth of information about how to make my garden grow!!!!

So, I got my wonderful husband to dig up the area in which I wanted the garden to be. Then we removed all the grass by hand, shaking out the soil- that was a nightmare. Next we put fertilizer on the soil and rototillered it to death! (Matt did all that part!) Then to get the soil to the right temperature to plant, we staked plastic over the area for a couple of weeks. We(Matt, with a little bit of my help) dug out trenches, so that I could flood them with water and develop a strong root system in the plants.

Finally, I planted!!!! I researched out all the plants I wanted and what kind would grow best in my cruddy soil. I planted 9 tomato plants- 1 Brandywine, 2 Early Girl, 1 Big Boy, 2 Roma, and 3 Celebrity- 3 red pepper plants, 1 zucchini, 1 cucumber, about 40 pole green beans, which I used my back fence which is rod iron as my poles, which I thought was just ingenious, if I do say so myself. And then I also planted about 40 plants of corn in 4 rows!!!!! The corn is so exciting to watch grow! It is so big, some of it is at my chest. I planted the beans and corn in 2 groups, with plantings 2 weeks apart, so that I wouldn't get a million ears of corn, or a bushel of beans all at the same time.

And tonight I picked my first zucchini! It was soo exciting! I don't know what I am going to do with it yet, honestly, I mean I will eat it, but I don't know how.

What is funny about a garden is that you think you will save money by growing your own food... HA!!! We have spent soo much money on that thing, not including my class, that I think I could buy all the food I am getting plus a bunch more for what I have spent on it. However, it is a good skill to have and now that we are at this point, it is soo exciting to watch it grow. It is a test in patience and trial and error as I am learning how best to water, weed, etc.... Maybe one day I will turn into a real expert of a gardener.

Carter's Arm Part 2, Although I Know There Was Really No Part One!

Typically there has to be a part 1 in order for there to be a part 2. And although while in my blogosphere there isn't a part 1, in my real life there was a part 1 and yesterday was part 2, which is now what I am writing about. Although, I will write about part 1 too! Does that make any sense? I am trying to upload pics, but for some reason blogspot/my comp isn't letting me... will continue to try.

Anyways, it all began two weeks ago in a lovely home in the suburbs. A wonderful mother, me, was upstairs reading to her baby before she tucked him into bed for his afternoon nap. In the well manicured backyard(just kidding! Have you seen our backyard, not too bad, but not manicured) the pregnant, tired, lovely mother's two other children, Carter and Ella, and their little friend, Trevin, were outside blissfully playing in the kiddie pool which was at the bottom of the play set slide. Upon closing the door she heard her oldest, super cute son, Carter, screaming his head off down stairs. Now the wonderful mother was a little startled, but was beginning to get use to this type of screaming seeing how it happened the day before when the lovely son got a bee sting in his hand. However, hearing the urgency in his screaming ran downstairs to discover that Carter's right arm was completely misshapen and his elbow the size of grapefruit!!!!

So then reality set in and I was in complete panic mode! His arm was obviously broken, maybe in two spots with the looks of his wrist and elbow. What the heck does a mother do in this situation? Not something you train for. So?? Hospital? Or instacare? Shoes? Where are they? Trevin go home. Ella come inside and get dressed. Shoes? Call Matt. No answer. Comfort Carter who is still screaming his head off. Call Michelle across the street. No answer. Call Matt's cell. No answer. Call Sadi, Trevin's mom. No answer. Get Carter a shirt- only in his swim trunks. No can't get shirt on with his arm. Comfort Carter. Call babysitter- beg to come over even with little brother to watch Ella and Linc while I go to hospital. Don't know for how long. Matt texts- call in a minute. Text back-911!!! Matt calls! "Carter's arm is broken" hospital or instacare?- will call and call back. My shoes? Ella- you stay here. Audrey is coming. Carry Carter in van. Have to pick up his arm to put on seat belt. Sadi, neighbor shows up- suggests we pray. good idea. I will do it- no Sadi you do it. Have purse? Phone? Audrey, babysitter shows up with little brother. Drive away.

Matt called the instacare, which is a million times closer to us than the hospital. They said they have an X-ray machine and can see Carter. After carrying Carter into the place, the dr. looks at him and says take him to the hospital and then probably unto Primary Children's Hospital. Along the way Matt meets us and away we drive. Carter by now has calmed down significantly, but the turns and bumps in the road make him very nervous. We finally get to the hospital and with one look at his arm admit him instantly into the ER. What happened? He tells them he fell off the monkey bar. That would be the first of what could be literally a hundred times of being asked what happened. He is quickly dosed with some morphine and Matt and I begin making what seems like a million phones calls to family about what is going on. Carter, in the mean time, is having his arm x-rayed. He is doing amazingly well and is taking everything in stride. We wait around while Carter watches some tv. I am on the phone calling someone when I notice behind me about 7 nurses, ER Tech, dr, etc. all standing around some screens when at the same time they all let out this big, "ohhh.... My gosh!" One nurse shushes everyone and the ER tech catches me eye, like sorry. I thought, the break must be pretty bad for them to respond that way. More x-rays are done. Dr. shows us the x-rays. 3 broken bones in two places. Two at his wrist and one just above the elbow. He says while he would feel comfortable setting his wrist he is has a call in to the orthopedic surgeon at Primary's to see about the elbow. More waiting........

Call came in, Primary's ortho definitely wants him at Primary's. Dr. would suggest taking an ambulance. Carter then starts to freak out. He does NOT want to go in the ambulance. Wants to take the van. We tell him that mom or dad can go in the ambulance with him. does very little to comfort him. But eventually, despite the cost, we decide it is the best and actually convince him of it as well. EMT guys were super nice and funny. Carter now tells people with a little bit of boasting that he got to ride in an ambulance. It was expensive to have him ride in the ambulance, trust me, I got the gigantic bill today, however, it was rush hour and the break in his elbow was close to nerves that if jarred too much could cause some serious damage. Carter wanted Matt to ride with him and I drive the van up. Also upon hearing that we were going to have to go to Primary's we called Matt mom who was on standby and she then went to our house and relieved Audrey, the babysitter.

The ambulance was nice cause once at Primary's they whisked Carter into the ER and into a room with no waiting! That was super! We were seen by nurses who I think administered more morphine. An ER Resident came in and checked on Carter and then the real Dr. and then the ortho resident. We learned that Carter was going to have real surgery and that 2 pins would be put into his elbow and that his wrist would just be set, unless they thought it was bad enough pins were needed. It would take about 45 minutes all together and the Ortho Resident said we had the best Ortho surgeon in SLC to perform the surgery. While getting the Resident into the room took forever, he was very thorough and clear once in there.

Poor Carter in the mean time was doing super considering- luckily for us and him they had Disney Channel there in the room, which was a blessing! He was very hungry though and we felt bad, but he wasn't allowed to eat because of the 6 hour surgery rule. That probably was the hardest part at this point. His arm was wrapped in a "mini" cast and his pain was minimized just his little belly hurt.

We wanted Carter to have a blessing before he went into surgery. There was someone in the hospital who could help Matt administer it to Carter, but we were hoping not to have to use him. Instead at about 6:00, right in the middle of dinner, we called our friends the Nelson's who we were friends with the first time we lived in SLC while attending the U. They lived downtown and we were hoping were not too busy that Matt, the husband, could come to the hospital and help my Matt with the blessing. Despite having a meeting he was suppose to attend in an hour, he agreed to come. It was sooo wonderful of him to come. His wife sent along some dinner for us, which was a huge blessing because we were starving and it was sooo good. And mostly it was just good to see him, we hadn't seen him since being back in the state. So we caught up a little and then my Matt gave Carter a wonderful blessing. And then Matt had to go. Hopefully it won't be too long before we get to see him and hopefully his wife again.

By the time Matt left we had lots more waiting to do before carter was whisked away at about 9 to have the surgery done. Of course we talked again with the resident, the anaesthesiologist, the surgeon performing the surgery, Dr. Higgins. Thomas Higgins actually. And I don't know for sure, but to me his name and his face looked very Irish, but he had no accent, but if he had I wouldn't have been surprised. Matt and I were shown the waiting room and then we headed downstairs to the restaurant and bought some drinks and some ice cream to eat. We headed back upstairs and waited and ate our ice cream.

Dr. Higgins came back quicker than we expected and said everything had gone very well. They did not have to open him up like they thought they may have to and no pins in the wrist. He was rousing now and the nurses will call for us when Carter is awake enough. We felt very relieved and blessed to have had to gone so well. What is amazing about the whole thing is that there was not one speck of blood anywhere during this whole ordeal! Crazy, how modern medicine works.

Carter does well post surgery. He throws up twice, but is fine otherwise. We determine Matt is going to stay the night because I can't fathom sleeping on their pullout chair. My awesome brother, Pat, and his wife, Stephanie, come up to visit Carter as well as bring Matt some over night stuff. We had no plans of spending the night at the hospital, Carter's fall happened at 2 pm that afternoon. Little did we know, eh? Yet we were so thankful for them bringing Matt's stuff up. I finally leave with Pat and Steph at about 1. They drive me back to were we dropped Matt's car off at.

The plan for the next morning was to get up and be our of the house by 8. Matt's mom agreed to come back and watch the kids for us. But Matt called and said that Carter was being discharged soon, so there was no need to have me come up. All hyped up on narcotics Carter came home.

Part 2
So we had a scheduled Dr. appt. on Tues. He was going to have his new cast put on- one that fit better because the first one was too big due to the swelling of his arm initially after the first surgery. Does that make sense? More x-rays were going to be done and I then mentioned that last Wed. Carter fell out of back/trunk of a neighbors SUV. Why any mother would let their child ride in the trunk of a car is beyond me, even if it just was down the street. Anyways, the mother didn't see it happen, but said Carter landed on his back and was worried he hit his head. Carter said he hit his elbow. At the time he cried a little bit and then later that evening he complained a lot about his arm hurting. We didn't know if he was exaggerating and liked the attention or if it really hurt. However, I did call the ER and put a page into the Ortho Surgeons up there. No call back and Carter fell asleep fine. The next morning he woke up and did not complain at all of any pain, so I let it be. But I did want the Dr. to make sure it was okay before we put on this new, more permanent cast.

After reviewing the x-rays twice, the surgeon said that his arm had moved and that he needed to have it reset-- today. I felt terrible. Matt and I are normally so anal about stuff like this and this time we took the wait and see approach and the one time we have this approach we totally get burned. So what was suppose to be a regular 1 hour long visit to the Dr. ended up being an all day ordeal! It was difficult and crazy.

However, I was so grateful not to have my other kids. I was going to take them with me because it wasn't suppose to be that big of a thing and everyone in the office is super nice so I thought it would be no big deal. Luckily, my sister offered to watch them for me. Man was I grateful they were not there. The visit and all the stuff following to get the surgery(and that is what they called it) set up took about 2 hours. We were going to be able to do the surgery at the surgeon's office building because they had a mini-ortho hospital set up in the basement of the building. so we didn't have to go to Primary's, which I thought was nice, but later turned into a little bit, or a lot, of, nightmare. More about that in a minute.

so we had 2 hours to burn in downtown SLC before we needed to go back. Initially I told Carter we could go to the Discovery Center, but quickly realized that little time would be spent there due to travel and parking time and time spent getting lunch for me, and a lot of money would be spent getting in. When I told them this it didn't go over very well. I was hungry and wanted to get lunch but Carter, who couldn't eat again because of the 6 hour surgery rule, wasn't thrilled with me getting food. I agreed that I wouldn't eat the food in front of him, but did end up getting some yummy Cafe Rio. I didn't think it would be that big of a deal and that I could wait to eat until 2:15- no worries. We ended up going to the downtown library, which I had never been to. It was really pretty and we had a nice time there- even Carter. We pulled some books about motocross and BMX biking and looked at them and then played some computer games. It was good because it was nice and cool inside and pretty low key for Carter and his arm, whose cast was cut in half and put back together with an ace bandage. After more thinking about it going to the discovery center would probably not been the best idea for his arm that was still broken!

So back at the waiting room of the surgeon's office we met with the insurance lady who told me that it was going to be only covered at 70% up to $3000 because he was out of network. Well, I know he was out of network here at his offices, but in-network at Primary's and I then proceeded to tell her what I knew regarding this situation. She said to make sure to check with the insurance in the next day or two to work it all out. Well, having learned with Carter's arm that waiting isn't always the best, I had Matt check into it right then and was told the same thing. So having the surgery performed today at this facility was going to cost us at least 3K!!!! So then I called insurance and was told while it is the same surgeon and we were only doing as told by the same surgeon who performed the original surgery but that it wasn't going to covered as in-network. URG!!!! I was then transferred to someone who would be able to help me find a new pediatric orthopedic surgeon who could perform the surgery the same day because I was not going to go home with carter's broken arm in an insufficient cast. Meanwhile the nurse came out and told us they were ready for Carter. I had to tell her I could not have them do the surgery because it was not going to be covered as we initially thought. Anyways, super long story short after spending over an hour on the phone with the insurance people and crying to the receptionist and calling the insurance people a swear word and have the surgeon himself call the insurance people, we were authorized to have Carter have the surgery performed. I was relieved and grateful. I was also so ready and told the insurance guy that I was ready to go to Primary's ER, which would have cost them much more, I am sure then just having the surgery performed in the office. What could have been more ironic was that the same Dr., Dr. Higgins, could have been the one to perform the surgery on him if he were the on call surgeon. all worked out, though, only took 2 hours longer than thought to have him have the surgery.

Once finally back in the prep room we got Carter put into his gown, which he thought I was making fun of him for calling it that, but luckily the nurse backed me up on that! Anyways, we filled our time playing I Spy and the rhyming game. Eventually at about 4:30 I was starving and asked Carter if he minded I ate. He said it was fine and he would just try and not pay attention to the fact that I was eating. I felt guilty, but I was starving and I am 6 months pregnant and all I had for breakfast was a lousy bowl of Fruit Loops. Again luckily, the nurse at this time was like, do you want to watch some tv? And once the tv was on Carter wasn't even aware that was I was in the room.

About 20 minutes later the surgeon came and got us. I walked with Carter for as far as I could go and then I hugged and kissed him and away he walked down the hall with the surgeon and didn't even look back. I couldn't believe how little he looked walking away, yet how mature he acted walking away to a surgery were he was going to be totally knocked out, with a surgeon he barely knew.

The surgery was suppose to take only 20 minutes, but ended up taking 40. When the surgeon came to see me he told me it took a lot more pushing than originally thought it would to get it back to where it needed to be. I felt so bad, knowing that if I just would have brought him in last Thurs. the surgery would have gone a lot easier. About 15 minutes later the nurse came out and got me to tell me he was awaking.

He awakened a lot quicker this time than last, I think because the anesthesia wasn't as strong. He drank and ate quicker and didn't throw up this time either, which was nice. We were able to leave about an hour after the end of the surgery. I told him earlier in the afternoon that after we left the surgery/office building that he could get whatever he wanted to eat- ice cream, McDonald's whatever. We asked the nurse if that would be ok and she said yes, so for dinner Carter had a big 'ol Maggie Moo's ice cream Marshmallow with oreo, kit kat and sprinkles! What could be better when you are 5?

We finally for home at about 7:30. We left at 9 that morning. It was a long day. The worst part of it all is that having it reset basically means that it was like having it broken that day, which means 4 weeks longer than expected in a cast. Which I think puts him into the beginning of the school year! Urg. We are definitely going to be keeping a close eye on him and keeping him out of trunks of SUV's!

Questions for a Child!

This week has been one of the longest of my life, but I will write more about it later, hopefully. I wanted to post a little questionaire I asked Carter yesterday evening while trying to keep him occupied. I got it from on of my friends blogs and thought it would be really fun to have him answer and he didn't dissappoint in his answers! Here they are!!!!!

1. What is something that mommy always says to you?

It is probably your upper lip.
2. What makes mommy happy?

Me smiling
3. What makes mommy sad?

When daddy leaves
4. How does mommy make you laugh?

When mommy talks to daddy
5. What was your mommy like as a child?

Good
6. How old is mommy?

31
7. How tall is mommy?

I don't know- like 45 feet from the ground.
8. What is mom's favorite thing to do?

Play with us
9. What does mommy do when your not around?

Rest!!!
10. If mommy becomes famous what will it be for?

A rock star
11. What is mommy really good at?

Driving cars
12. What is mommy not very good at?

Making clocks??
13. What does mommy do for her job?

Clean dishes, help others, tidy up the place and dust
14. What is mommy's favorite food?

Quesadillas and strawberry argula salad(which is what we had for dinner that night)
15. What makes you proud of mommy?

When she gives me birthday presents
16. If mommy was a cartoon character, who would I be?

Imagination movers
17. What do you and mommy do together?

Go to the store and pick raspberries at nana and baba's
18. How are you and mommy the same?

We both have Blonde Hair
19. How are you and mommy different?

Mom is a girl and I am a boy
20. How do you know mommy loves you?

Cause she has a heart
21. What does mommy like most about Daddy?

Cause he gets paid and give all the money to mommy
22. Where is mommy's favorite place to go?

shopping. Where? to walmart, no the bread store!!!

I thought some of these were really too funny. The bread store? And was he spot on about what I like about daddy or what? And I am sad when daddy leaves!! Despite all the insanity this week, he is a wonderful little boy who I love tons! Couldn't imagine life without him!

Alone! In the Inferno!

WE have been enjoying my parents house in Montrose, IA(pop.900) for the last week now! And this is the last only time I have been completely by myself since we got here! It has awesome! Although I hear a car door slamming as I write this, so maybe not a very long post! But still soo nice to be alone.

Little later.....
Not alone anymore, but still quiet! Lincoln is sleeping and the kids are downstairs with Matt watching something on tv. Would love for them to be outside, but it is like 95 degrees and soo humid it feels like a sauna! I do love the humidity but I just checked weather.com and they say it the temperature is 91, but feels like 108! Enough said! Whew! Were going to go to Nauvoo this afternoon, but it got nixed because of the heat and the fact that Lincoln was up till like 12:30 last night courtesy of my mother and was soooo tired, I couldn't imagine taking him anywhere, especially in the heat! Courtesy of my mother because he woke up at about 10 and while I would have let him cry after my initial visit to see him, she couldn't handle it and after going in to see him 5 times brought him in the living room to hang out on her lap. She kept saying she felt bad for him..... He finally went down just in time for the gigantic thunderstorm to blow in and keep him awake! It was awesome! He also woke up when the second thunderstorm came in some time in the middle of the night. I love thunderstorms, but not when you are not in your own house. Anyways......

So the trip is coming to a close. Two nights left. It has been a good trip over all. Too much time spent in the car, but I suppose what do you expect when you live close to nothing! Kids have been good about being in the car. Pretty much just pump them full of ice cream or skittles/candy during the trip and let them go crazy wherever we end up. I can only imagine what people think of us with my 5, 3, and 2 year-old and my big pregnancy belly. In Utah no one looks twice, here poeple must think I don't know how to keep my legs closed. At least they all look alike and are relatively well dressed, like we can take care of them.

Let's see since being here we went to the John Deere Museum and expensive gift store in Moline, IL and the children's museum there in the quad cities. We went to the Mennonite Walmart, which we always enjoy. Mom and Dad's branch. The Double Dip ice cream/laundry mat a few times. We went to see the BYU ballroom dancers put on their traveling show. We went to the famous Family Discount Shoe Store, where we left with 4 pairs of shoes! Everyone got a pair except for Matt. Matt and I did our once a trip outing to the Nauvoo temple and IVY restaurant! Food was awesome and session was really good too!!! Not always the case, but definitely this time. Oh, Matt and I also got to go on a date and saw the movie up in 3D. It was good- glad we didn't bring Carter- not a little kids movie! Tonight we are going to Nauvoo for their nightly riversides show- can't remember what it is called. Tomorrow we plan on going golfing- Matt, Carter, my dad and I! And then tomorrow night the guys are all going to the car races in the next town over.

Besides all our outings Matt and Carter have mowed the whole lawn, which isn't very exciting, but Carter gets to help steer the riding lawn mower, which he loves. The kids swam in the little pool mom has until Penny, the world's worst puppy, attacked it and put teeth marks in the sides of it! We have picked a bunch of raspberries. Carter has built lots of jumps with the help of boards and bricks he found. Lots of time spent on the hammock. Kids pulled out our old super soakers. Matt and Carter took a really long bike ride this morning. Daily walks to the mail box. Carter and Ella climbed the tree at the bottom of the driveway. I spent lots of time playing the piano, which I thoroughly enjoy since I never get to. Kids did the zip line! And really spent lots of time outsides doing who knows what.

We have seen 1 super cute fawn, a million bunnies, 400 dear, several dead mice/moles in the yard, one gigantic dead mole- in the yard-, several frogs, 1badger, 1 garden snake, a donkey, burro, bunches of horses and tons of cows and more bugs than I ever want to see again for the rest of my life. I am soo sick of the bugs..... except for the fireflies- those bugs are cute....

Besides all those bugs and the fact that we have been sleeping on an air mattress all week, this is a good grandma/grandpa house and my parents are good to us. Always fun to visit!

Cheap Summer Fun!!!

So I did one of my better, cheaper summer fun ideas today. It will probably by lame to anyone who reads this, but think I am lame, whatever. But before I tell you what exactly I did there is a little back story on how I discovered my cheap summer fun idea!

When we moved from Louisville to Boise we were only permitted to bring 1000 pounds of our stuff. Which may sound like a lot, however, that is everything- clothes, toys, books, basically anything thought we would need for the 9 months we were going to be there. They told us our corporate apartment would be furnished and I suppose it was, but anything and everything in the kitchen was needed and of course no toys! And while I did bring the kids some of their toys, it became apparent pretty quickly that we needed more. However, I didn't want to spend a lot of money when we had tons of toys in boxes in storage somewhere in a warehouse in SLC. So I went to the DI and found some of the biggest trucks we could find for Carter. Bigger is always better right? Ella was so little she didn't care much still about toys or just played with Carters. So we came home and gave them all a good scrubbing and he played with them tons until we got all our stuff out of storage 5 months after we moved to Boise. And those DI toys became Carter's outside toys. He loved having big trucks he could play with in the unused garden plot of the house we were then renting. And I loved that he didn't ask to take his "nice" toys outside to play. He knew he had fun stuff outside already.

But that was 2 summers ago! That is funny to write 2 summers cause it doesn't seem like that long ago in my head. hmm.. And we have moved and while we have a big tub to put toys in during the winter, he still played with them in the snow and the lid wasn't always put on just as it should have been, so those poor, cheap, very played with trucks didn't make it through. I think all have pretty much been put in the trash. Carter hasn't noticed soo much that his trucks are gone, cause they left slowly, but I noticed how much fun he had zooming down the slide or off the landing of the playset. Or crashing them into each other in sorta crash derby off the deck. And the best part was that I didn't blink an eye!

So after my doctors appt. today we were very close to the DI, which we actually don't live very close to at all, hence me taking so long to finally get over there. The kids were like where are we going? DI. Why? To buy some toys? For who?- they know better to think they were the ones getting the toys cause that never happens. For you. Why? They are going to be your outside toys. So whatever we get is going to be for you play outside with. They were very excited about this idea. In my head I only wanted to spend $15 dollars. I thought that sounded like a good number, no other reason than that.

Once inside DI we head straight for the toys. I had only been to this DI once before and so we did have to look a minute for it, stupid as that sounds. We found it quick enough though. And that was like the hub of the store. Those two isles were slammed packed full of people. I felt like I had to be really savvy and make sure they didn't take all the good stuff. Carter knew exactly how it worked and went to the biggest cars, trucks, jeeps and ATV's he could find. There were plenty there because people donate their old remote controlled ones, which are perfect for what we were wanting them for. Lincoln was excited too and was crawling around on that filthy floor playing with cars he found. We put those in the cart too. Now Ella wasn't quite sure what to do with herself. She wanted the Barbie cash register, which totally didn't work. I put it in the cart to satisfy her, but was removed before we left the toy isle. I then directed her to plastic dolls and my little ponys. On her own she found a pink ice cream truck she wanted too. She was thrilled and didn't want to put them in the cart with the boys toys, she wanted to hold all of them- she had like 10 + the truck. So we head to the register and while the kids all are all walking backwards up the isle, I am wondering how much exactly am I buying? While of course everything is cheap, the point of all this is that it is cheap, I didn't want to pay $25 for all this crap.

However, when the cashier said $15, I thought this is the best $15 I have ever spent. The kids were soo excited and wanted all their stuff in the car. Ella's was easy enough for her to play with, but the boys trucks/cars/jeeps/atvs were huge compared to their little laps. Yet Lincoln didn't seem to mind. When we finally got home, after a "quick" stop into Walmart, the kids flew outside, despite the serious wind and not so warm temperature to play with their new toys. Ella asked if she could play inside and seemed content when I told her no those were outside toys. They seriously spent the whole evening outside playing with them. And I am sure there will be many more hours of play those toys will get.

Best $15 ever spent!

Names......

We walked by a family with like 4 girls on Matt and I's last date and he said, " I should go back and get the names of those girls! How did the parents choose 4 names!!!!!!!"

So if you don't know..... we are having a girl! It was quite the shock, cause I swore I was having a boy. And to be honest, it has been like, what?, 3 weeks since finding out and I still think in my head I am having a boy. I call it him when referring to the baby in my belly. While shopping, I don't have any desire to look at baby girl clothes. And don't even mention names..... what in the world are we going to name this child?

Matt and I can't agree on a name to save our life. It is quite comical to listen to us try. We spent last Sunday night at Matt's parents house with a brother and sister-in-law of ours trying to figure out. We went through his parents relief society list because we joke, me too, that I like old lady names and I guess they have a bunch of old ladies in their ward. The name Matt most liked was Mimi! I think we have settled that the girls middle name will be Jane. Maybe her first name even! Who knows?

Some names we, well, maybe me more than Matt have liked so far are: (and I have kept a list of them, so they are easier to rule out and less likely to forget which we have ruled out) Clara/Claire, Olive, Ruby*, Violet, Anna*, Lauren, Janie, Daisy, Lucy*, Molly, Lilly, Jillian/Jill, Annabelle*, Annie, and Juliet. The * ones are the few that Matt kinda, maybe likes! He isn't super keen on any of them. Right now he likes Reagan or Lindsay.

And everyone likes to give suggestions, which I actually don't mind. We need them! My father has called me often and told me he likes the name Grace. My grandma likes Evalyn. Matt's mom likes Susanna.

My sister-in-law Jeanne likes Madison and call her Maddie. Which is cute. But there is a problem. There are 3 Maddie's on our street. 1 lives across from us, 1 lives 3 doors down, and one actually just walked by our house, is Carter's best friends older sister. I don't want another Ella, which isn't to say I don't love Ella's name- but there are like 6 Ella's in our ward. Again 1 lives right across the street. And I know we most likely won't live here forever, but still.... Between the 75+ kids on our street and the 35+ nieces and nephews, our names are limited.

I kinda feel like if we were to find a name for her, it would settle in my head that we are actually having a girl. I really do think that when the baby comes out the doctor is going to say, 'oh! Look we were wrong.... it is a BOY!!!!' I know that that is unlikely, but a name would help give this child some identity?

And another funny thing about naming it, is that we have almost always known the name upon conception. Ella took a little longer, but still I think we knew once we found out she was a girl that was our Eleanor Rose. This next one was going to be Truman.... there is no girl name that can be made out of that one.

So I don't know.

I haven't posted for long because I felt like I couldn't post until I talked/announced the sex of the child, but not able to confront it until now, I suppose. 2 and 2! So different than how I thought my family would look. I don't mind having a girl, truly, just so different than what I truly believed. i always thought my last would be a boy, which begs the question are we done......

But before we decided whether or not we are we have to name this child..... so any suggestions.