Christmas Is Coming!

The other night we were at Robin, Brent & Dakota's house-which was already decked out in Christmas decor-when Ayden suddenly demanded to go home immediately. It took a few minutes for me to figure out why he was getting so emotional. The verdict: he thought that because Dakota had Christmas decorations, that Santa Claus was coming that night and if we didn't hurry up and get home to decorate our house Santa wouldn't come to our house.
I'm so excited about Christmas through Ayden's eyes this year. He finally has a clear understanding of how everything works.
I promised him that night (Friday) that we would decorate on Saturday. He asked ALL DAY if it was time to decorate and if today was Christmas. I had to get very specific: "Today is November 29th, there are two days left until December. Christmas is on the 25th of December, which means you have 27 more days until then." We need one of those Christmas countdown hangings NOW!
So, late into Saturday afternoon, after being patient for almost a full 24 hours, Ayden finally asked, "Mom, why aren't you in the attic yet?" Needless to say, our decorations went up last night. We had some "help" from our little friends pictured above, because it was our turn to babysit for the date swap we participate in. I'm sure you can imagine how that went!

Hangin' With the Hutchinsons

I made my layout with the Myspace Background Maker. Get myspace layouts, graphics, and flash toys at pYzam.

the Pirates Of the Mississsippi

Thar she blows!

Ayden, Ian, Brant & Laurel checking out the ship.

A Captain Jack Sparrit impersonator according to Ayden.

Thanks to Maren, we actually have a picture of all four of us!

Frost Top root beer. There's nothing like it.

Today we went on an adventure downtown with the Cupit family (minus Brad-some people work for a living). We really enjoyed touring the ship. It's a replica of the HSM Bounty made for the movie "Mutiny On the Bounty" starring Humphrey Bogart. The ship was recently restored for the filming of "Pirates Of the Carribean" and is in prestine condition. The owners are considering sailing it back to Tahiti for old times sake. Go here to get the scoop on the Bounty (page two has the history of the original ship). It's really impressive. A true classic tale of the seas. I think the adults enjoyed the tour more than the kids, but we all had a great time. We finished our morning trek off with lunch at Frost Top. Mmmm...greasy! For more pictures go here.

a Four-Year-Old's Brain

The other day, I was leaving to go to a movie (you should all know which one by now) and Ayden asked where I was going.
Me: I'm going to see a girl movie.
Ayden: What is it? Hanna Montana?

Family Projects

Ayden's teacher sent home a turkey coloring page with instructions for us to decorate it as a family (everyone had to help) with things we already had at the house. She had such a great response with the turkeys, that she sent home Christmas trees for us to work on during Thanksgiving break. It has been fun doing this as a family. I'll list out some credits:
For the turkey: Ian did the nice scribble on the right. Josh thought of the feather hat. Stacy, Josh and Ayden all took a part in coloring and gluing the glitter, pom-poms, and feathers everywhere. Stacy did the googly eye.
For the tree: Josh collected twigs and glued them to the trunk. Ayden did all of the coloring except for the bottom left (Stacy did that part). Stacy did the tissue background , bow and ribbons. Ian helped Stacy & Ayden do the 3D glue ornaments.
So there you have it. Family craft time complete!

14 Weeks

Another week has come and gone. I felt the baby for the first time last night while I was watching "Twilight" for the second time in 3 days. I felt Ian at about this time too. Trust me, I know the difference between gas and baby flutters, for all of you skeptics out there. I guess my strong emotions from Bella solving the "what is Edward" mystery caused some excitement for the little lemon too. Life is good. Pass it on. Later.

The Answer You've All Been Waiting For...

If you look down a bit you'll see my post asking people to guess what's in the package. Well, I guess the shape gave it away, but I got some funny guesses! My sis, Dixie, sent us a genuine AUSTRALIAN BOOMERANG. Included was the history of the boomerang. Did you know that a young girl from Australia threw that thing all the way to Baton Rouge? She never learned how to throw it correctly, so it's staying with us instead of returning to her. So sorry, little girl. Now we have to focus and train hard to make sure it will return to us when we throw it. I'm sure Josh can figure it out. Look at that game face! I, on the other hand, can't even skip rocks, so I'm not getting my hopes up. Thank you, Dixie and Markus, for the gift. We love it!

Thanksgiving Lunch With My Firstborn Child

School lunches have not changed much. Not very tasty, but the company was perfect.
The milk still comes in the breast implant bags!

Eat up, pilgrim.

Too cute!!

Can You Guess What We Just Got In the Mail?

I'll wait a few days to get some guesses.

Me Likey!

I got the HOOK UP last night! I had a special invite from some dear friends -I won't mention so they won't get tarred and feathered-who invited me and around 20 other girls to see the employee screening of Twilight. I LOOOVVVVEDDD IT! Sure there are a few small issues I have with it, but for the most part, it was WONDERFUL! I had issues with some of the casting choices, but they all turned out to be pretty darn good. Good thing, because I already bought tickets to see it again on Saturday. Am I nuts? Sure. Why not. There was also a preview of the next Harry Potter movie that had me jumping out of my seat with excitement. NERD ALERT!

13 Weeks. Our Little Shrimp. Literally!

Yep, that's right. This week kid number three is the size of a medium shrimp.
I can't believe I'm still finding these pictures with the quarter to compare the size.
Go go google images!
Little shrimpy has her own finger prints now and if she's a girl (fingers crossed, we won't know until early January) she has formed 2 MILLION ovaries. That's so crazy! Oh, and I found out that she's now swimming around in her own urine. Yummy. I heard the heartbeat for the first time on Thursday. That was comforting. We're past the vital development, which I have noticed, because my morning sickness is mostly gone. I still get a little queasy periodically, but nothing like I was feeling. Hoorah.

Baby Booty

This is how we found Ian this morning.

Aerial view.

Going On Dates With My Boys

At the mall with Ian

Lunch and a movie with Ayden.

Ian's first time climbing up and sliding down all by himself!

Last week we all suffered as I ran a fever for 3 days and was out of commission. Ayden was in dire need of some mommy time, so Josh sent us off to see Madagascar 2 on Saturday. It was nice to have that special time with Ayden. After the movie we went to McDonalds which coincidentally had the Madagascar toys included with the happy meals. It was a great date!
This week we are finally feeling "normal" again after vacation and Halloween madness. I got to have the past two days with just Ian again. We had fun at the mall today. He is more coordinated now, so I didn't have to hover over him like usual. The little cute girl did distract him and he had a little stumble, but otherwise he did great. He went up and down that slide at least 10 times. Another great date!
Now I just need a date with my husband and I will be one happy lady.

12 Weeks Along

12 weeks: a lime

11 weeks: a fig

10 weeks: a kumquat

9 weeks: a grape

So there's the sizes you missed while I was away. I had a few people asking where my baby size reports went, so here you go. That quarter is the small one now. I'm showing already, but that's typical with me, and I'm so over trying to be your "average" pregnant girl. I'll worry about my size after this baby is finished breast feeding. Until then, watch it people. In the past I've heard "She's as big as a house", "You're about to pop!", "Are you sure you're not having twins?" There's more, but I'll stop. Yes, I'm showing early and I'm dealing with it, so really, watch it.

I DID Catch Up!

Our trunk/costume theme: Andy's room from "Toy Story"

From Left: Markus, Dixie, me, Josh

Dixie made the penguin costume for me and did most of the decor on the Jack in the boxes.

Ian walking in our home town, Ponchatoula

Checking out "Old Hard Hide". Yes, we have a caged alligator on display downtown!

Remember the post last week titled "I'll Never Catch Up"? Well, here is the last post needed to bring my blog up to date for the month of October. We were in Tennessee from Oct. 17th to 26th. My sister, Dixie, and her husband, Markus, rode back with us and we spent four days showing Markus what Louisiana is all about. I think the two riskiest things he tried were frog legs and alligator. We were all so tired from our previous trip, we had to drag each other around to see the sights, and we survived! We had a ward Halloween party (you already saw the clip of Josh's potato sack race) during their stay, which turned out to be a great success. Now Dixie and Markus are back in Australia, but not for long. They are going to England where they will stay with Markus's parents until he gets his visa, then they will be back in the states! We can't wait.

Halloween!

Our little Mickey. Ian calls it "Hot Dog".

Batman & Woody ready to load their bags full of treats!

They were all pooped out by the end of the night.
Of course, we have a ridiculous amount of candy.
We have three buckets that I categorized into 1. chocolate 2.gum/gummies/candy 3.suckers. Will it ever end?

Scaredy Mom! I was so focused on the camera footage, I didn't notice the box in the corner big enough to hide a person who might be waiting to scare me.

Y'all Come Back Now. Ya Hear?-Part 7 the Finale, I Promise!

Our last moments together. Yes, I cried.
It was a great week spent with the whole family together-except for Billy, Chani's hubby.
Maybe next time:(
We did a whole lot of nothing which turned out to be a week full of great memories that we will laugh about forever. I love my family more than I could ever express. This was the perfect place to get together. We were 20 minutes west-ish of Gatlinburg, but never set foot into that tourist trap! Take care fam, lots of love to ya!

Aunt Chani Joins In the Fun-Reunion Part 6

This was the best chocolate cake we ever had!

Siblings: Me, Chani, Nikki, Travis, and Dixie

The whole lot

Silly kids

Snuggling with that cutie, Taryn!

Crafts With Granny- Reunion Part 5

Visors were made. (Uncle Devon in the background)

Okay, not a craft, but look how cute!

Spider and ghost pumpkins!

You can make anything out of pipe cleaners!

Ian chillin' with his homies.

That's a Nice Bouldah! Reunion-Part 4

A few of us ventured out and found Cascade Falls deep and high in the mountains.
What a find! Josh and Uncle Markus would toss Ayden from rock to rock. He loved it.

Markus found his inner child!

Fun times

Go fam go!

Granny and Paw-paw kept Ian company while we hopped around.