#3

I'm only 10 weeks along - so I'm due June 26th. We asked the kids if they wanted another brother or sister. McKenzie wants another "gril" (pronounced like the BBQ grille). More specifically, another McKenzie - who wouldn't? Justin's not sure, but he's convinced it's a girl and her name will be Josie. We'll take either one!

Justin's room

I thought for sure Justin would love this room. It's very light blue on top with a wallpaper stripe of cars, trucks, etc. in the middle. It's dark blue on the bottom (with an admittedly too fancy brush stroke) and unnecessary pieces of additional wallpaper vehicles. Maybe a little over the top, but for a boy who loves anything on wheels?!?!

As we were finishing McKenzie's room (and before we had officially moved in), Justin casually walked into his room, tore off a piece of the wallpaper and asked "when are we going to paint my room?" He said he wanted yellow on top and blue on the bottom, similar to the style of Kenzie's room. Well, why not? Dad didn't agree and thought we should do something totally different, so I threw out the idea of stripes. Justin was on board with the idea as long as they were blue and yellow. By the time we had finished McKenzie's room we had convinced him that two shades of blue would be better AND since we were going to paint it anyway, why not move him into the bigger room at the front of the house - he is the oldest.

So we moved him into the unacceptable room while we worked on the new room. After the first coat of blue I started rethinking the "stripes" idea - what a lot of work! So started the challenge of convincing Justin that he didn't need stripes. We were at a standstill for a while but finally persuaded him to see the light when we told him it would look like a jail cell with dark blue stripes. He agreed he didn't want that and we moved him in that minute.

His dresser is the same color as the nightstand (also the color of the intended stripe). It turned out great and he's very proud of his new room!

More pix of the house to come!

McKenzie's first haircut

McKenzie has a habit of "twirling" her hair when she's sleepy. While it is an endearing character trait, it has also been the source of many spontaneous trimmings. The result?

Skiwhampous locks!

It was finally getting long too! But . . .

Viola!

Doesn't she look older now?

And even more beautiful!!

I re-CAPTURE THE CASTLE! and other events of the past month

Halloween was only the beginning . . .

That night a family in our ward moved into our basement. We'd met them the week before at the ward fall festival and learned that they were supposed to close on their new home friday morning and be out of their current house that night. I, in good faith, offered "if you end up needing a place to stay, we have a basement . . ." Around 9PM they, their four boys (ages 11, 10, 8 & 8), and their two dogs moved in. What was originally suppose to be a couple of days lasted three weeks (let me remind you that this is one week longer than we had actually lived in the house ourselves). No, I'm not bitter . . . I need the blessings.

The next thursday I got a call from Justin's school saying he was burning up and fast asleep. So I picked him up and went straight to the doctor. After four years, 3 months, and 4 days of nothing more than the average cold and occasional fever, he was diagnosed with strep and administered his first ever antibiotic. The following weekend he spiked another fever and we set off again to see his pediatrician (it was low-grade but he was still on his antibiotic?!) This time - an ear infection and a different antibiotic. The following weekend, McKenzie got a turn with the throat swabbing. She tested negative for strep but didn't escape the ear infection and got her own bottle of pink syrup. We seemed to be in the clear until last night when a light rash appeared on her chest. This morning she was covered head to toe with the bright red chicken-pox-like outbreak. Our opinion: an allergic reaction to the Amoxicillin. We've doped her up on Benadryl and thrown out the antibiotic. If she's not better in the morning, we'll be back in the peds office for the forth week in a row.

This week was a true week of thanksgiving. I'm thankful for my family, for their typically good health and consistently good spirits. I'm thankful for the beautiful home we have and the means to care for it. I'm thankful for family and friends who are always available and willing to lend a helping hand. I'm thankful for the holiday season, for the looks of awe as we place baby Jesus in the nativity scene and the smiles and exclamations of joy as we plug in the 700 lights on the Christmas tree.

Happy holidays!!

Halloween

I should probably tell you that this was not the first time J and Mc donned these outfits (as I'm sure any of you with children have experienced). No, Halloween is no longer the one-night-a-week, stay-out-as-late-as-possible-to-try-to-get-as-much-candy-as-you-can holiday. Now kids can relax because they will have numerous opportunities to prey on the guilt of neighbors and friends and complete strangers.

Don't get me wrong, October through mid-January is my favorite time of the year because of all of the celebrations, decorations and get-togethers. So, we got all dressed up and went to the monster mash and trunk-or-treat in our old ward (on moving day) then we got all dressed up and went to the fall festival and trunk-or-treat in our new ward (the next weekend) then we got all dressed up the morning of and went to Justin's school for a costume parade and class party (complete with two goodie bags and cupcake decorating) then we escaped a trip to Toys-r-Us for more free candy and free advertising and then we got all dressed up that night for the real deal. Alex took them around the neighborhood while I stayed to hand out the treats.

This is what I had been waiting for . . . to see the smiles on my kids' faces (above) as they headed out into the unknown. Aah . . . Halloween.

Room Update