Wintertime

A little bit of snow and a lot a bit of goofiness!

Superheroes!

Our littlest superhero turns 4 on Monday! We celebrated with his three best (boy) friends with a Super Hero party last night. It was a beautiful evening and we were able to get them outside to play! Jason created an obstacle course to complete, and then we also played a game - something like "capture the villain" (who was Jason) and they had to tie him up with toilet paper! The Superheroes prevailed!!!!

Happy (early) birthday, my little munchkin! I have to say of all of the birthday parties I have had for my kids so far, Kyle was the most excited for this one! He was ready to celebrate!

Remember the Ten

Ten years ago today. Ten men, including my friend, Nate Fleming, lost their lives in a tragic airplane crash. I am so proud to be a Cowboy and vividly remember the days and weeks following the event. I have so much respect for Coach Sutton, even through his ups and downs, for being a great coach and mentor and representative and now, a friend.

Jason just felt the baby move!

and it never becomes less miraculous!

I L-O-V-E the chance to be pregnant with a wonderful child again!

Rachel's Birthday Video

Grab your kleenex... I saw this couple on Oprah's Ultimate Australia show, and it just hits home because they are young 30's with two boys! So cool...

Blog Book: FINISHED!

I am so happy to have a great report on my blog book! This is project I have wanted to complete for a while, and it turned out to be so much easier than I imagined!

I ended up searching for several web-sites that offer this feature, and actually uploaded to a few to compare prices and options. Sharedbook and/or blog2print (same place) ended up being where I decided to move forward!

The book is a hard back, about 3/4" thick (smaller than my high school yearbook), and contains more than 210 posts, composed of all of my entries from 2008-2010. The site offers many things: a foreword, table of contents, personalized pictures on the cover, include/exclude blog comments, just to name a few.

Here is the front (a 2008 photo!):
Here is the back (a 2010 photo!):

Each page has the web site title and a page number on the bottom:

Just an example of a page:

You cannot select font, and probably my only complaint is that the photos automatically upload to the left, with all text to the right, which in my case, ended up being text that goes with a certain photo is several inches away from the picture... but not a big deal since it's all listed under the same post date.

Go order yours! Once I selected the site, etc, it was less than 30 minutes to order, and right at $60, for a lovely, awesome, treasured keepsake!

side shots

Pregnancy #3!

Side shot at 20 weeks - HALFWAY THERE! Master Walker is the length of a banana and approaching the 1 pound mark near the end of the week. Not a whole lot of belly pooch quite yet (just expanding elsewhere first!) At 16 weeks and the size of an apple!

before. and AFTER!

Jason couldn't be happier than to be practicing in our town! It just makes him so happy and has enabled our family to meet a lot of wonderful people. However, the actual office and equipment were really outdated and relatively ugly when we bought the building and practice. In the past 3 years, we have chosen to update the equipment to better serve our patients, as well as make the office appear cleaner and prettier!

Here are the before pictures of Jason's main opertory (the hygiene rooms were updated during Christmas 2009 and are fairly similar). Lots of clutter...

The front desk (orangy-ugly countertop):

And the AFTER of his opertory and the front desk. (side note: we also painted walls throughout and updated the furnishings in the lobby this past year, and I regret to say I didn't take pictures of the "before" of that project). This countertop now has pretty stuff on it, too - this was just taken when we first saw it after the demo!

MUCH cleaner, MUCH prettier, MUCH more useful layout and better equipment for my man to utilize!

Baby Stats

With Grant and Kyle, I created a pregnancy journal that carried over for their first several years! The blog is now my journal so you, as my readers, will just get to know everything, too!

Sweet Baby:

• At 18 weeks, you weighed right at 9 ounces.
• I could first feel your movement in my uterus around 15 1/2 weeks. I think this was earlier than your brothers, possibly due to the fact I knew what to feel!
• You love to move from about 7 pm - 11 pm.
• I am 19 1/2 weeks and still don't really look pregnant. I have my maternity clothes out, but don't really need to wear them yet. You're spreading "all over" and not just "out."
• I expect your Daddy will be able to feel you any day now. If we could just get the timing of his hand on my belly and your kicks, then that would be great!
• Your brothers love to talk to you!

My Style

After checking out a friend's blog, The Steen Style (link on my page), I decided to take the quiz on sproost.com to find my decorating style!

Here it is: 100% Modern Elegance. Not much room for anything else! Below are a few of the rooms that suite my style that they gave me. I do like a bit more "cozy" furniture than shown below, but I am always a fan of clean rooms with clean lines!

What's your style? Go find out and let me know!

Modern Elegance: Variety is the spice of life! And nowhere is this truer than in the design of your home... You either love contemporary but wish it wasn't quite so cold and austere; or perhaps you've always been drawn to more traditional rooms but are now at a point in your life where you'd like to pair down a bit or want to create a less cluttered and busy space. Transitional Style is here to marry those apparent contradicting designs. And guess what — it's the contradictions that make the mix of contemporary and traditional so successful. The result is an elegant room that appeals to young and old alike. A sofa with modern lines blends seamlessly with a pair of traditional chairs. New fabrics work so well on antique pieces. It turns out that modern art looks even more exciting above a collection of traditional pieces. The room feels simple and sophisticated, elegant and hip.

Materials: The material palette for Transitional Style is a wonderful mix as well. Wood tones add warmth to the more modern finishes such as metal and glass. Fabrics are usually neutral and focus more on texture rather than pattern or color. Because you are mixing two very different styles, simplicity is key. Carpets are often Berber in natural tones, though area rugs can bring in color much like a modern piece of art would. Window treatments, when used, are simple in style as well as color and many times you will see natural roman shades or wood blinds used. Satin nickel, chrome and stainless are very popular and can modernize an otherwise traditional space. On the flip side, when the room feels more contemporary vintage golds and wrought iron will tame and add warmth to the space.

Colors: For color think simple. Remember that you have set out to create an eclectic mix of two styles and the best way to avoid making the room overbearing is to stay subtle on the walls and ceiling. Whites and creams are popular and grays, taupe's and tans are darker versions of neutrals that work very well. The simplicity in the color helps keep the space feeling light, airy and fresh. If you'd like to add deeper color choosing one accent wall is a nice way to do so. Or add depth by bringing color in at the accessory level. The best part about colorful accessories is that you can easily reinvent the space by simply changing the throw pillows to highlight your new favorite color.

Master Walker #3

God knows that Jason and I are happy to be parents of little boys and to have the opportunity to raise mentally, religiously, physically and emotionally strong and healthy men.

(I just may need a few more Mom's Night Out doing girlie things and seeing girlie movies once I have four boys under my roof!)

We don't yet have a name for this fella but will announce it when we do decide!

Here is his profile, with his face down. You can see his heart, brain, and the white bone of the spine.

Frontal view looking at us! This shot has always freaked us out a big - one of the boys called it the alien picture, and I can't help but agree!

Hi, Friends and family!!! I am waving to you!

Baby's heart rate was 145 - exactly what the other two boys have measured around this time. As of the ultrasound, he measures 18 weeks and 4 days (one day ahead of schedule) and weighs right at 9 oz. It will be exciting to see if he physically favors Grant or Kyle or becomes a new combination of us!

Sea World and San Antonio

Our family ended a great 2010 with a fun-filled trip to San Antonio. It was a trip that once we found out we were pregnant, we really wanted to do with the boys! Oklahoma State ended up earning a trip to the Alamo Bowl, which was while we were there, so it was extra fun to see so many OSU fans, players, and coaches while there. The most fun was when Kendall Hunter was in the lobby of the Marriott, and we started talking with him. Side story: Kendall is good friends with one of our church's nursery workers, and apparently, Kyle talks about him so much that she asked him to sign a Christmas card for Kyle. It says "Merry Christmas, Kyle! Happy Birthday to Jesus!" So we told him that "this" Kyle was "that" Kyle, and he remembered and asked Kyle to take a picture with him. Our little fella was in heaven! Just a few steps away, Grant saw Brandon Weedon walking and yelled at him and got a high-five. It was fun!

That night we went to the Riverwalk and took part of the Alamo Bowl pep assembly on the river. Our band and players made their way to the area in the riverboats. Great weather and great scenery.
The next morning we headed out to the Alamo. It was drizzling but we still had fun. Kyle's favorite part was seeing cacti... because it reminded him of Lightning McQueen crashing in to them! They also liked the Koi fish. So much for the history part! :)

It started raining more heavily so we headed to grab a bite to eat. Jason and I ate so much cheese sauce that we had leftovers of our meal to take back to the hotel. The pouring rain at this point kind of forced us back to the hotel, where we took a 3 hour family nap! Heated up leftovers for dinner in the microwave, but then managed to go get Haagen Das ice cream for dessert (and the boys saw 3 guys getting arrested and frisked on a police car!).

Day Three: we took off toward Sea World! We got there about 40 minutes before they opened which turned out to be great for several reasons. The teams participating in the Alamo Bowl had their bands perform so we saw both Arizona and Oklahoma State bands. Also, the gates opened early so we had more time to play!

This picture is at the entrance. What I did not capture just to the right is the Arizona pom squad on the other side of the statue taking turns jumping off of the wall, squealing, getting their pictures taken while in the air. geez....

The first thing we did was head to feed the dolphins! I told Jason while we were there "this is totally worth the ticket price alone!" It was great!!! I counted 11 dolphins at one point. We could touch them!

Call us suckers, but we bought the fish so we could feed them, and not "just look" - so fun.

Next off was the first roller coaster ride.... can you tell if they were having fun!?!?! It was the kiddie ride so we thought they should go together and without their parents.

Some of our friends were visiting their parents near San Antonio and their family joined us for the afternoon.

Sea World has a variety of live shows as well as all of the exhibits. This is the Azul show - a combination of Beluga whales, dolphins, parrots (not really but something like them), and then extremely talented divers/dancers. It was very beautiful and great. We were in the "splash zone" for an added touch of fun!

Lainey, Grant, Gaddis and Kyle Part of the show.... you can see two of the synchronized divers on the left side as well as the ones on the smaller diving boards.

The beluga whale...

This was very typical for these two... they were teasing each other and holding hands the entire time! They go to the same school and really enjoyed this extra time together!

Getting ready for the Shamu show....

We were so very amazed at Sea World during this show. The entire opening video was about the Miracle of Christmas and baby Jesus being born on that night in Bethlehem. It was awesome and also a big shocking at how religious the entire thing was - way to go!

Ker-splat!!!!!! This papa whale was HUGE!

The little boys were able to do their first roller coasters during this trip. They started off on the kiddie Shamu ride and had fun. They then agreed to go on Atlantis with Jason - the big water ride. I didn't get to join them since I was pregnant! Jason must have told them about holding your hands in the air as you go down because this picture below is the one from the Sea World camera capturing them as they descend. Kyle kept his hands up the whole time and it appears Grant decided to grab on to the seat! :)

The boys after their big thrill ride (they ended up going back on it two more times later that day!)

We ended the night with greasy pizza and a funnel cake! yay for great memories!

it's been perfect

This Christmas break, with Jason home for a week, has been perfect. There have been so many memories made and so much laughter... I just wanted to say how much I love my three boys!!!

Marmaduke. Wait For It..wmv

I just HAD to find this clip from Marmaduke after more Grant-isms this morning (in Jason's face). This was his favorite part of the movie and will randomly say "wait for it... wait for it..." and then die laughing as he toots.... So, here's in honor of Grant's movie scene!

Great grandmas and some ice capades!

Our our trip south, we stopped by to see my grandmother in her independent living center. She is 3 miles off of the highway and it worked out great to see her for over an hour! It was the first Christmas I hadn't seen her so we remedied that problem! Here is the boys other great-grandmother at the family Christmas eve celebration.

Our town once again as the outdoor ice rink set up so we decided (actually, Kyle decided) to go again! This time, it snowed on us!!! Brrrr but really, it was quite fun. Here's a picture of Kyle just stepping out of the rink - he was tired!

The 2010 skaters!

Big, BIG brother

One of my favorite things about Grant in the past few weeks is his sincere desire to be the best big, BIG brother as possible to our baby. He will always ask me how the baby is feeling, and he just loves to try to stick his finger in my belly button to tickle "his" baby. (note: this really annoyed/bothered me at first, but when I realized why he did it, I just adore this sweet gesture now).

Yesterday, on New Years morning, we were laying in bed and I was on my back. There was this little bump on my tummy that hasn't really been there and I showed him. He immediately gets down to my belly button and starts talking sweet things and telling the baby how it was now 2011, which was the year it would be born.

It's fun going through this pregnancy with bigger kids. Grant was barely 1 when we conceived Kyle so this is a new experience for everyone! and it's been fun and sweet and miraculous.