Happy Halloween

Another successful Halloween, this year we had a Cowgirl, Supergirl and Dorothy from Wizard of Oz. She made sure I knew from Wizard of Oz and not the Wiggles, "Dorothy the Dinosaur." And Lynlee is the only one I made, Halloween just crept up on me, I was going to make McKenna a bee costume but we had a scary week right before Halloween, my doctor sent me to the hospital with pre-term labor at 28 weeks!! Everything is totally fine and they put me on "light" bed rest (not sure that sentence means anything to a mom of three small kids) but I've had to take it easy, so it was store bought this year!

Such cute girls, and a big thanks to my wonderful neighbors that helped take the girls around!! They are angels and helped carry McKenna when she started to lag, only because her bucket got so full and she was to preoccupied with all the candy and not running to keep up with all the other kids. No picture of her by herself, the were all blurry, she never stops moving.

Elders

Billy has been serving as the Ward Mission Leader for about a year now and has loved it, he loves working with the Elders. We have some great missionaries serve in our ward. This past weekend Elder Simons was transferred and Elder Shultz went home to cold ole Utah. Lynlee and Regan actually cried and so did Elder Simons, they will be missed!!

Elder Beeman was serving in our ward over the summer, him and Billy mastered the art of Skittle throwing and catching them in your mouth, it seemed like every time they were over it turned into a competition, we miss him too, we went on to serve in College Station.

Elder Esplin and Elder Nelson, by far two of my favorites, they are both still out and I think every time they have Zone Conference, Elder Esplin finds the missionaries serving in our ward and we get a note from him. Our family has been so blessed and I love seeing and helping with the Lord's work!!

Halloween Yumminess

In a effort to once again not carve pumpkins I distracted them them making sugar cookies, WORKED LIKE A CHARM!! Fun was had by all.

Until I decided to run upstairs, start the bath water and came back down to this child frosting her head, at least she used the plastic butter knife and kept her hands clean.

Can we camp outside Mom?

They actually never asked, just brought down their pillows and set up camp. They know they have free rein of the house when mom is returning e-mails!!

Brownie Ceremony?!?!

I actually have no idea what this was, but the leaders handed out awards and the girls sang songs. The other parents were all taking pictures and video so I just went along with it.

I love this picture of McKenna, I can tell exactly what she is thinking, "Why yes mom I am up to no good. As soon as you turn around to watch Lynlee I'm going to go back to playing with the bathroom door, or maybe I'll go play in the drinking fountain again." But I love her, and she is too cute.

"The Big Camp-Out!"

The end of September we went camping with 4 of the funniest families. My friend Mary quoted it as "the big campout" and it was. We headed out Thursday afternoon, and arrived at Brazos Bend National Park in a downpour. Lucky one of the families had a super new gigantic trailer, we all ate dinner and waited out the rain. We finally set up our tent by headlamp light at around 11. Some families had bailed and slept at home, which luckily was only 45 minutes away. After a night battling raccoons trying to get in our cooler, and tent, we set up all the comforts of home we could cram in 2 cars. Another family set up the hammock and we needed a parent manning it the entire time, and lots of "okay your time is up, get out and let the next kid swing in it."





We headed out to the lake for a bike ride and stopped at the nature center first, to see all the stuffed animals and pet some baby alligators.

DO NOT BE ALARMED, NOT A REAL RACCOON!!

Of course I didn't get my big butt on a bike, I only rode to the bathroom and back, so Billy took Lynlee and Regan around and they said they saw about 12 alligators, later on the night it seemed the number grew every time they talked about it so your guess is as good as mine. He only took a picture of this one!

The kids had a great time and we had great weather!! Texas is still dealing with this awful drought so we couldn't have any fires, which was a big bummer. We had to be creative at night, the campsites had power and water, so we strung up a bunch of Christmas lights, and about a million glowsticks. All the kids loved it, when I was putting the girls to bed, Regan asked me if Santa Claus was coming.:)

All the kids climbing this enormous oak tree, I love Texas trees!! We had a blast, I did here talk one night about a campout in November, just not sure these pregnancy hips can handle sleeping on an air mattress again, but we'll see. Thanks Glauser's, Long's and Archibald's for the fun!

Reactions

So if you haven't heard you must be living under a rock, but we are having another GIRL!! All pink party all the time at our house, and we are excited!! But some family members had some pretty funny reactions:

Billy was out of town for work and couldn't go to the ultrasound, but was excited and said, "I need a bigger gun and way MORE AMMO"

Regan-A enthusiastic "Cool"

And Lynlee, oh this girl really, really want a brother. She came running off the bus and I said "you are going to have another little sister!"
Lynlee-"WHAT, mom I really wanted a brother! (Then totally losing it) I always have to play the prince, Regan always makes me be Eugene, I HATE Eugene!"
Me-"Who is Eugene?!?!"
Lynlee-"From Tangled, Regan always wants to be Rapunzel and makes me be Eugene, gosh mom."
Me-"Oh okay, but are you excited about another baby sister, all we care about is that the baby is heathly."
Lynlee-"Yes mom a healthy baby. I'm excited, can we name her Teresa?"

I really love 7 year old life problems and thoughts.

But we are all totally excited, now for the name, Billy says he still can name a girl William, Lynlee of course wants Teresa and Regan really likes Dema?? Not on the list we just humor her by talking about it.

Downward Facing Dog

This pregnancy has been pretty normal, well not normal but pretty much the same as my other ones. Except, I am carrying really low, I am 23 almost 24 weeks along and not big at all, I am in most of my same clothes and have just a little baby bump, sorry there will be no picture. But with how great I am looking, my tailbone and lower back have been killing me!! By the end of the night, I am limping and can barely pick up McKenna. I did some research and there must just be a lot of pressure on my tailbone. The recommend exercise, "downward facing dog" yoga pose. Awesome, I tried it last night and I could tell a difference in pressure, UNTIL Regan came in and asked if I was giving pony rides, and her and McKenna started climbing up my legs to get on my back. Guess it will just have to wait until after bedtime!!

Hair Today

I don't know where all these fads come from but they are crazy!! Lynlee had been begging me for a feather in her hair, since school had started. I called around and they were $25.00 buck at a salon, NO WAY!! Then one of my friends said they did them at a place at the mall for $8, so I caved and let her get one. She had it for about 2 weeks, and I told her once it falls out, we aren't getting another one.

I realized last week she took her school picture with it in, what a great memory! And not to miss out on anything, Regan wanted one too, I didn't go with the feather just a snap in pink hair extension we can take out, I have to admit they do look cute.

Will you sign my cast?

Here is finally a picture of the pink cast. She has had it off for about two weeks and is back to her old busy self. When she had the cast on we let a few people sign it, the Elders serving in our ward, her sisters and then one day in nursery some guy let the other kids scribble on it, I wasn't real happy about that but oh well. Anyways, Billy's family had there annual reunion the weekend before school started, and since they all couldn't sign her cast they broke this poor stuffed animals arm, put a cast on it and signed it for McKenna. I love all the BOWN'S!! We laughed so hard when we got it in the mail.

Back to School Shhhhtuff

Well we have survived the first few weeks of school, and I sit here looking at these pictures thinking when did they get so big, I miss my babies!! But i love these girls, and they are loving school and their teachers, 2nd grade for Lynlee and Preschool for Regan.

Summer Highlights

I have pretty much sucked at blogging this summer, we are expecting baby #4 in January and of course was struck down with a nasty case of morning sickness in the evening. But with that over, here are just a few highlights of summer vacation.

I hate Back t School, I know some parents just love it because there kids fight and are bored at home, and yes mine are like that too, but I like them home with me. When at school somedays I just watch the clock waiting for them to come home and hear about their day and all they did. I like staying up late, and sleeping in, ruining dinner with a bunch of cookies at 5:00 and just hanging out. We have done so much fun stuff this summer, swimming, hitting the movies and fun little outings.

But we are looking forward to dance, girl scouts, and Regan starting preschool. Lynlee had here meet the teacher tonight and I can tell its going to be a great year, but also lonely for mom for a little while. Good thing I'll have a brand new baby to love and cuddle and McKenna to keep me on my toes. I love being a busy mom!!

Bye-Bye Jeep

A few months ago we bought a new used car, Billy found some old man Lincoln and that's a whole other blog post on what I think of that car! He needed something that gets better gas mileage for commuting to work. So that meant he had to sell his beloved Jeep. We have had this car forever!! He bought it when he was first home from his mission 12 years ago, and we brought our first baby home in it, I was sad to see it go but no where near Billy.

We will miss you old friend!!

First Broken Bone

McKenna broke her elbow at the beginning of the month, the very first in our family. This is the only picture I seem to have on the camera, I have a bunch on my phone but can't figure out how to put those pictures in the computer (I'm getting old!) But she had to had surgery and few pins to make sure the bones healed properly, this pic is after surgery but you can't even see her pink cast. The cast has put a damper on all our summer swimming but I'm grateful to all my friends that have taken the older girls for a dip in this ridiculous August heat. The cast should come off in another few weeks, it's really starting to smell.

South Padre Island

At the end of July we went to South Padre Island with some great friends the Gleason's we rented a condo and had an amazing time. Great family photo, baby not looking, hair in the face, and weird look on dad's face, but at least Lynlee and I look good.
(All these photos went way out of order but we should just be happy there's a new blog post!)


We visited the turtle refuge, never got to see a live release but the girls still loved seeing all the turtles they are rehabilitating. South Padre is at the very south tip of Texas before you hit Mexico, it was a super cute little beach town with lots of fun surf shops.

The condo had its own pool, we swam and swam and swam!

When we weren't at the pool we were at the beach!! Lost McKenna a few times chasing the seagulls, such a wanderer.

We went on a sunset dolphin watch cruise, it was fun but McKenna was over the dolphin watching after about 10 minutes then I spent the rest of the time making sure she didn't fall overboard.

All the Girlies, I loved that everywhere we went people would stare or say things like, "that's a lot of girls!!"

The condo had three bedrooms and all the girls shared a room and got to stay up way late and watch movies with popcorn in bed. But not to miss a moment of the vacation they went to bed at midnight and were up with the sun at six!! SO RELAXING

The VIEW, love the ocean.

To Make You Smile

I love these weridos!!

Surfside, U.S.A

Billy's little bro was visiting from Utah the middle of June, we had a lot of fun things planned but everyone was struck down by a nasty 24 stomach bug, even poor Jake. So after all the throw up had been cleaned up we took a little trip to Surfside beach. It was a beautiful day, the waves were huge and Billy and Jake were able to do some "body surfing" it looked more to me like almost drowning but they had fun.

All my cute beach babes!!

Brotherly Love