What have we been up to?

We've had a fun & busy past few weeks. Jake is loving coach pitch baseball. His team is the Giants this year. When I asked him what he wanted his number to be on his shirt he said, "What's Gpa D.'s favorite number?". We called my Dad & he said, "63. That's of course the year of my corvette!" (his baby--he's had it since college--sold is once then bought it back!). That's all it took. Jake wanted a big "63" on his back in honor of gpa. Pretty cute. He's the only lefty on his team. Everyone was confused at first because he kept batting right, then left, then right again! BJ's having fun with this. :)
Home run Jake!

Allison is loving her "Princess Ballet" class. She of all of my girls loves to dance SO much. We caved, or rather, I signed her up and BJ had to give in! She is so focused and tries so hard to do all the moves. Her favorite part is putting on ballet shoes & leaping.

But the most exciting event that we just celebrated is Allie's 4th birthday! She has been counting down the days! We always have the tradition of opening presents on the morning of their birthday and so at 6:45am she came running down the hall saying, "Mommy, it's my birthday. Can I open my presents?" No reminding this year. She is fully aware! Anything with little ponies, horses, barbies & pink were her favorites!

New tu-tu immediately tried out.

Gma H sent this new black, white & hot pink polka-dot dress which Allie twirled & twirled in (gma knows she loves to twirl). Here she is with her favorite toys of the morning all organized & ready to play pretend.

After the other kids got off to school, in a big rush, we had a little party with her best buddies. Decorating pink cupcakes & painting wooden wands were the highlight...

and of course getting in dress ups & jumping on the tramp! So easy to please!

K Gma, this pic is for you. Miss Hollywood was ready to go out on the town today!

That night we had a 2nd round of cupcakes with our family along with one of Allie's favorite dinners, hot dogs (we already had Orange Chicken this week)!

I can't believe how fast 4 years has gone by. Allie is such a joy. She brightens up our day & makes us all giggle. She is such a little sweetheart, so easy going & full of imagination & love of life & everyone around her. Her favorite things to do are storytime, playing pretend with petshops, ponies & barbies, twirling, jumping & big hugs & kisses ( especially steeling kisses from her Dad). We are so grateful to have her. She is so excited to be a big sister & almost everyday asks me when the baby is going to pop out so she can play with him. We love you Allison!

Family room makeover!

I've been promising my family forever to finally post some pictures of our family room makeover (which continued in the entry & up the stairs). It all began when my friend Melia offered to paint in exchange for piano lessons after I told her I'd love to have a change! I helped a little :) Secretly I was also planning to get BJ a flatscreen for his birthday. He's drooled over them for years but never caved it. Time for our old 11 yr TV to go. So, I'm loving the change. It's much brighter than before. Sometime I'd like to find a fun rug. I love moving things around, changing things up. Also, love what a little paint can do.

Family Room before, the only pic I could find...this is at night so it looks even darker.
Painted it over 5 years ago. Just felt like a fresh change.

Here is the new entry by the stairs, the paint color used to be a pale yellow, now its the same tan as my kitchen.

Family room, two walls are a beige/gray color. Love how it brightened things up
and my little accessories *pop* a little more.

I LOVE this blue/green color...a lighter muted shade of turquoise kind of...called "Smokey Slate" from Home Depot. I already had the deep orange pillows but found the Paisley orange & turquoise pillows at Home Depot (they are actually outdoor pillows...even better for little kids!).


Furniture is still all the same, just the new tv *Yay*.

Here is up close of the pillow that inspired the colors of the room. Love it.

The other couch & up the stairs (used to be the same pale yellow). Back to neutrals on the walls with a little color. Hello spring! There you go. I'm loving it and for the first time in a long time I don't want to move things around! Now I just want to find a great rug and maybe recover a few floor pillows in a fun print. All in time...

It's a boy!!!

Hey everyone! I just found out this weekend that I'm expecting a baby boy. We are thrilled! I'm 20 weeks now and feeling less sick...hooray! I'm totally showing. It doesn't look it much here for some reason but believe me, I am! :)

The toughest part for me this time around is how exhausted I feel and my legs and feet get pretty sore. Just a bit more worn out than I remember with past pregnancies. I guess my body is letting me know that I'm not in my 20's any more and having my 1st or 2nd...I'm 32 and in my 6th pregnancy! It's feels so strange saying that. That's quite a few! When the ultrasound technician asked me what pregnancy this was and how many live births and realized I have had only 1 miscarriage I got "The look". It's pretty funny. I get that "look" lot's around here. People think we're absolutely nuts! Oh well. It's definitely feeling like this will be my last baby. I've never had that feeling before with any of the others. I've felt like there was another boy waiting to come to our family and so this is a sweet surprise. You never know...but for now, I'm feeling like 5th and final. :)

Oh! For those buddies in So Cal I really want to put a plug for one of my best buddies Mique, who is hosting a fabulous event in San Diego. It's a one day art and craft show dedicated to all the best of San Diego! May 1st, 2010. Come check them out! To see the list of their vendors, check out their blog: thequeenbeemarket.blogspot.com

Another Freebie! Dress from Shabby Apple

Hey everyone! We have another business wanting to do a give away on our ForSaleByMormonblog: Shabby Apple is giving away this dress to a lucky winner. Wanted to invite my girls to get in on it if you're interested. Just click here to get to the blog and see the details. Wish I could enter! So Cute.

Free Give Away Fun

Hey everyone! BJ and I have started a blog for the website we've put together: ForSaleByMormon.com (a place for LDS business owners, bloggers and members with classified items to have a place to advertise, purchase and communicate with one another). The blog is dedicated to announcing favorites, what's new and free give aways. We've had some really amazing give aways so far and there is one going on now from this adorable shop called "Mary Poppins Presents". The owner sells such unique, fun and adorable handmade items. I wanted to let you all know in case you want to enter to win. Super easy to enter, just go to the blog and post a comment (see blog for details). There is a give away almost every week from businesses that want to get a little more advertising. The next one is from Shabby Apple (SUPER CUTE dresses). Anyways, I wanted to invite you to come over to the blog and to subscribe by e-mail or "follow" to get the automatic posts on free give aways!! The Mary Poppins Presents give away ends tomorrow.

Love ya!

The secret is out....pregnant!

Hey everyone! Just after the new year I discovered I was pregnant and as hard as it was didn't announce it to everyone because of my recent miscarriage last August. But, I've just begun my 2nd trimester (14 weeks) and feeling a little less anxious. So! We are excited to try again for number 5. I'm still a little anxious. I just can't help it because of having my first miscarriage last time around. But, I've had an ultrasound 4 weeks ago and listened to the heartbeat this past week and everything is going great. My due date is Sept. 5th, but that doesn't mean much since I've always been 2-3 weeks early. We'll see what happens. I've been really trying to take it easy...well, most of the time!

I've been a little sick, mostly gaggy and exhausted. I am lucky to not be like those women that can't keep anything down for weeks. My worst symptom really this pregnancy has been my enhanced sense of smell and wanting a nap when I couldn't get one! Not too bad. :) I'm already showing, to me at least Not everyone can tell yet but I'm sure in a week or two it will be obvious. Gone are the days (when I was pregnant with the 1st or 2nd) and I could get away with not showing until after 20 weeks! Oh well. :)

My kids finally have the go ahead to tell their friends and teachers at school this week. They have been dying!! Jake is still rooting for a boy and Loren for a girl (because she thinks that will mean she'll get to take over the office for her bedroom). Lindsey calls it "Loren's evil plan". Lindsey say's if it's a girl we can just get another bunk bed! Allie say's, she just wants to be a big sister and doesn't care. We'll see. In 6 weeks we'll find out what we're having. Pretty fun.

We've had some fun and busy weeks. Lot's of basketball with Loren and Jake the past several weekends. BJ has coached Loren's team again and they've had fun. Jake's bball shot is "money" and he's loving being old enough to play in real games. Lindsey is having fun learning new tricks at gymnastics. Right now she's working on a back handspring on the beam (ah!). Allie is loving preschool and playdates with her friends. She can write her name and is learning how to read...little by little. She is still mommy's little cuddle buddy. I love that. She is so sweet and imaginative.

We got to go up to N. California to see our brother in law get baptized (Such a neat experience...not many dry eyes) and Aunt Brookie's 1st baby shower a few weekends back (yay, another cousin!). It was fun to tell our baby news because now there will be a set of cousin buddies born in the same school year! It was such a great weekend, a whirlwind as always, but so worth it. Gotta download my new pics to the computer...

Hope you all are doing great. Love ya.

Happy New Year!

First of all, Happy New Year! I'm excited for what 2010 holds for our family. We had some really hard times and some really great times in 2009, all experiences that helped us to learn and grow. Last year made me realize even more how thankful I am for the family and friends that we have in our life. We truly feel blessed. 2010 is well under way but I wanted to share a few pictures of what we've been up to the past few months. First off, Christmas was relaxing and magical...the best ever, the kids said. Well, Santa brought some pretty great things to our house. He must have really found some amazing deals. Yes, he did! Allison got her own little tricycle...no longer will she need to ride around the hand me down spiderman scooter. She was obviously thrilled, especially because it was pink.


The favorite gift was the wii. We finally have joined the ranks of family wii 0wners. Screaming deal to say the least..thank you Craigslist. It's been a hit for the whole family. Ours came with some downloaded games, so good old super mario bros (which I dominated as a kid) has become Lindsey's new favorite game). Loren and Jake love Mariokart.


Ahhh...Loren's favorite gift...new boots/slippers. She loves planning out her outfits and accessorizing. Always a willing shopping partner!

When Jake opened up this skateboard he ran, I mean RAN over to me and gave me the biggest hug and thank you. He...was...so....excited! That pretty much made my Christmas morning.

So, when we had asked the kids what they would rather ask from Santa, a wii or a new tramp (since ours had broken about 5 months earlier). Unanimously the kids said, "Wii!!!!" Mom and Dad really wanted another tramp so the backyard would get used again. Well, I think Santa hit some major deals because we were spoiled to get the tramp too. It was a beautiful, sunny, short sleeve weather Christmas in southern California. BJ and I spent a few hours of it that morning putting together the tramp!


Lot's of fun jumping, playing and being together... a great Christmas. The next morning we drove to UT and froze!




This was the main reason for the trip. BJ gave me a great Christmas present, a trip to UT to see Natalie's new baby Adelyn (Addie for short) and be there for the blessing. We got there the night before the blessing. Here are my sisters and I and beautiful, sweet Addie.


We got to stay in the beautiful condo of my brother Aaron and sister in law Amy and were minutes away from Temple square and all the Christmas lights. Wow, it was freezing and my kids were in heaven. Every little peice of ice was kicked...every patch of snow was investigated and stomped in or tasted. This was probably the first time Jake had ever played in snow. We were bundled and enjoyed all the sights of temple square.


Almost 12 years ago we were married here. It sure has gone by fast.



The fam.

Of course we went sledding! Our pals the Ostlers took as out to a favorite spot and the kids had a blast.

Do you see this? Yes, backwards. Jake tried everything. Daredevil! He was all over that hill, trying every position he could and having a blast.

Hey Hollywood!

We got to stay with my other brother Connor and his wife Amara and cousin Aiden and Liam. I think Aiden wanted us to stay there forever! He loved having his cousins to play around with!
I don't have any pictures of it but we had a fabulous new years with family and friends. Only wish we could have been able to connect with all our family and friends. It was a wonderful trip!

Once back to Cali within another couple of weeks me, Linds and Allie drove to Vegas for the final gymnastics meet of the season...a total fun meet. It was a multi-state meet with all levels of gymnastics there. Our level 4 team got 1st place and Lindsey got to take the trophy home for the weekend. She got 1st place all around. Pretty fun. A great end to a fun season. We got to stay with my cousin Steve and his wife Marnie and family. They were the best! Besides living minutes from a Cafe Rio..ahhhh.... we got to catch up and hang out. They only lived about 10 minutes from the hotel where the meet was and Steve and one of his sons came to watch Linds. We have a great family.

Here is Linds and her coaches, Ola and Jeff.

As soon as the meet was over we hopped back in the car and made it home in 4 1/2 hours. Whirlwind trip! We've been getting back into routine here, lot's of homework, speeches and activities. Jake and Loren started basketball again. BJ is Loren's team coach. Life is busy and fun. This weekend we had BJ's mom in town. She knows just when we're needing a little visit... and help. Lindsey had probably her first real asthma issue in 2 years this weekend, and Jake came down with a fever and body ache, I caught a cold and Allison seems on the edge of something too. When sickness happens, it really happens! I don't have a picture from this weekend...but thank you Mom2 for all you do for us. Love you! New Years resolution: blog more frequently :) Hope you all are doing wonderful.