363 more days and counting.

Every year I'm amazed at how quickly Christmas day goes by- after all the hard work that is put into it! I shopped, wrapped, baked, cooked, cleaned, organized and decorated for hours upon hours, and it was over in 3 hours. But it was a magical, exciting and perfect 3 hours!

We kicked off by going out to dinner at Bucca di Beppo with Aaron's parents on Christmas Eve. They live in the Bay Area and drove down on Saturday to spend the week with us. After dinner we came back and opened up Christmas PJ's, set out snacks for the reindeer and Santa, read The Night Before Christmas and the kids opened up our family ornament for 2007 and then their Christmas book. This year they got Merry Christmas Curious George! We tucked them into bed at 8 pm and read them the Bible story out of Luke 2. We had to be really sneaky about keeping the "santa gifts" that were downstairs, hidden. Our upstairs hallway looks directly into our family room and we didn't want to have any accidents so Aaron secured their door with an alarm. It did the trick and we had no peekers!

The kids got up at a decent hour- 7am and they waited in bed with Aaron while I went downstairs to check to see if Santa had come. (aka- turn on lights, Christmas music, get out camera's etc.) Indeed he had come and the kids raced downstairs to see! The look on their little faces was the best part of the whole day- priceless! We played with Santa gifts for awhile and then had homemade cinnamon rolls and fruit for breakfast and then jumped into presents and stockings. It was all over by 10 am. We then hurried to get things straightened up, shower and head down to my parents house. Aaron's sister, her husband and their 3 kids met us there. We opened presents to/from my parents and had a most delicious dinner. We had about 40 people there- great g-parents, mine and Aaron's parents, aunts, uncles and cousins. It was a really great afternoon and we loved being with all our family. We finally got into the car to head home at about 8:00 and I think all the kids were asleep before we got on the freeway. Aaron's parents and sister and family came back with us and stayed the next 2 nights. They left this morning.


Waiting in bed- hurry up , Mom!
The boys big gifts from Santa.

Addie was a little in awe of everything- although she jumped right in and got the hang of it very quickly!

More Christmas craziness at Grammy and Grandpa's house.
Grammy (my mom) and Jake opening up MORE presents!
Addie with her favorite toy- a stroller for her baby.
As much as I love Christmas, I am relieved that it's over. It's so much fun and definitely my favorite time of the year- but truth be told, I also really enjoy putting everything away, cleaning up, playing with the kids and all their new toys that and looking forward to the New Year. I love the feel of the fresh start and the best part is that I also get to look forward to our new baby! Now that Christmas is over I am going to start getting ready for him and I'm so excited for that. It's crazy that the little guy will be here in less than 15 weeks! I know with 3 birthdays and lots of preparations for the baby, that day will be here before I know it. Next big event. . . the youth are coming over tomorrow night after the New Years Eve dance for their annual "waffle breakfast" at midnight. It's a little tradition Aaron started since he's been YM President. Better get cooking- again!

Bring it on.

The Edmonds household is ready for Christmas morning. . .bring it on!

The chimney has been cleaned for Santa's arrival.


The roof has been hosed down in preparation for the reindeer- so they don't slip on the dirt.


Santa's cookies have been baked and are waiting on the hearth, accompanied by carrots and lettuce for the reindeer and milk for Santa's cookies.


Christmas PJ's have been opened and the kids are all snug in their beds.

We're ready!

Merry Christmas everybody! Have a magical day!

What did you do today?

Lots of rain+2 little boys= an afternoon of fun!

Wow, my kids had so much fun playing in the mud today! Wondering what I did all afternoon? No need to wonder anymore, I spend the afternoon cleaning up muddy kids. Seriously, it took me almost the entire time. I'm usually always game for putting the kids in play clothes and letting them go to town, but I'm not exactly sure that today's adventures were worth all the work. It was such a mess!

No Where Else I'd Rather Be

This is kind of a random post (no pictures because the camera battery is dead), but it's something that's been on my mind. For me, it's hard to put these kind of thoughts into words. You know the kind- things that you think about a lot and are really important and meaningful to you, but then when you try to verbalize them- it just doesn't come out right?

It's just been such a busy time. There are so many places that I need to be, things that I need to do and people that I want to visit- but how do you fit it all in? Well, tonight my little Jake was SO tired. He had a busy day of off-roading with Dad and Tyler, birthday party, playing in the backyard and then we went out as a family for dinner at Johnny Carino's and then to Target. We let the kids pick out gifts for each other and for us. Jake was just miserable- tired and didn't feel good. So we came home and he was asleep in the car in about 3 minutes. I changed him and put him to bed and then laid down with him. As I was laying there the Christmas lights from the neighbors houses were coming in his window and I just thought about all the craziness that was going on outside of his bedroom window- the traffic, crowds at the mall, lines in the stores, etc. I realized that as much as I have to do, there really was no other place I'd rather be. . . in bed, snuggling my little baby, smelling "his" smell and feeling his sweet breath on my arm. I really could have laid there for a very long time- but the real world called me back and Aaron had to leave to chaperone a stake dance and the 2 other kids needed my attention.

For whatever reason, I really am thankful to have had that moment tonight. A couple days ago we had a really scary, traumatic experience at our home- it was a close call with one of the kids. I'm still not ready to talk about it- it really shook me up, but maybe that's why I was blessed with this epiphany. A little moment of peace and clarity, to help me remember what's really important during this crazy time of year.

Go Team Mitt!

I am not exactly what you would call a "politically active" person, but considering what's at stake with the upcoming presidential election, I decided it was time to do something. So I signed up on MittRomney.com and got involved as a volunteer. Tonight was our first volunteer activity- to tell you the truth I was kind of nervous. It was a phone bank, cold calling people and doing surveys. But I decided to go and have the experience. It was definitely out of my comfort zone, which made it a challenge for me!

I am really glad I went, I learned a lot and it felt good to do something that perhaps might (in some super small way) help out the Romney campaign. So it ended up being 3 hours and I made about 150 phone calls. Unfortunately, most people aren't super friendly, but I sure talked to a lot of interesting people. I even called some people on my list who were dead- oops! sorry! One poor old man told me all about his late wife who used to take care of the cat and although he hated it, he kept it around because he felt like she was watching. It was so sad and I wished I could've talked to him longer and kept him company. I was the only girl there (they were all middle aged business men) and at the end the guy who was hosting the event told me that I had made the most calls- yeah for the pregnant mom!

Hopefully you heard Mitt's speech this morning on religious freedom in America. If not, you can watch it here. Make time to watch it if you haven't yet because it's amazing and it has changed a lot of peoples thinking about his possibility as a Republican nominee. If this interests you at all, let me know. There are so many things that we can do to help Mitt win!

Football, Cosmo and BYU!

On Saturday afternoon we drove down to San Diego for the BYU/SDSU game. It was supposed to have been a few weeks ago, but because of the fires, it was rescheduled. It was really cold- but I loved the chilly weather and warm clothes! We drove down with our friends, the Jones', and met up with some other friends from our ward there. Our friends who moved away in June flew down for the game! It was so fun to see the Wildings and it made me realize how much I miss them. Our kids had a blast playing together. I got brave during the 4th quarter and took the boys all the way down to the field to try to get a picture with Cosmo the Cougar. We had to wait for almost 45 minutes- but we were determined and we got our picture! The kids were so excited to see Cosmo up close and slap him five. The Cougars won 48-27- so that made the night even better. We love BYU football- go Cougars!

Family picture, minus Addie- she's not really a football fan yet.
Patiently waiting for Cosmo to come our way. The boys were yelling for him the entire 45 minutes. I'm sure he came over to us, just to get my boys to shut-up!


Finally, we got the picture!

Aaron's sister, brother-in-law and 3 cute kids met us there. Jake had fun making his cousin, baby Paige, laugh. She thought he was hilarious!

Just give me 2 minutes

What in the world is going on in my house??
Let me tell you about my afternoon- please, I need to vent for just a couple minutes.

So, first of all, I go outside to check on my boys- plus my friends kids that I was watching. Lucky me, my little boys have figured out how to turn a bucket over and unlatch the gate that goes into the side yard (which leads to the gate to the front yard.) So after I herded them all back to the appropriate part of the yard, I go back out a few minutes later only to find that they have done it again and are now strategizing with long branches to unlatch the second gate to get to the front yard. Wow- I was ticked! They got in serious trouble and I even threw away a Christmas present. . . while they were watching. (I know it sounds really mean, but it's not. Trust me, they had been naughty all day and had been warned several times that Santa is making his list and little boys who don't listen will not be on the "nice" list.) So they were pretty upset with me, but I stuck to my guns and didn't give the toy back, like I usually cave in and do. A little while later Jacob comes screaming into the kitchen. He is yelling that his cheeks hurt so bad and that the paint in the playroom is hurting him. What?? Did you scratch your face on the wall? How can paint hurt you? Never got the answer to that but he was hysterical and after holding and rocking him for several minutes he finally calmed down. But, his cheeks were bright red- strange. Then I go upstairs to get Addie up from her nap and dang it- I can tell she's sick. You know what I mean- hot face, eyes look funny and she won't let me put her down. Then Aaron calls to say that one of his residents at work is drunk (I mean 3 WHOLE bottles of Vodka) and he's waiting for the police to show up. So he'll be late. I take all the kids to the playroom to keep them busy until Dad gets home from work. The playroom light is unplugged (courtesy of Tyler) so I ask him to please plug it back in. For the first time of the day, Ty actually listens and goes to plug in the light and BAM- the light explodes and I hear this loud pop and my son is screaming and his hands are covered in black! He got electrocuted!! I scooped him up and ran him to the bathroom because his hands were burning and he was shaking so hard from the pain. So now all 3 of my children are upset and hungry and wanting to be held. So I get everybody settled in on the couch to watch Scooby-Doo so I can get dinner done. Aaron gets home and we sit down for dinner and before my first bite, Addison throws up ALL over her high chair and her dinner. Yum. Aaron and I team up and get her (and the high chair) cleaned up and in the bath. (it's right next to the dining room so we can hear her playing) We sit back down to finish dinner and a few minutes later send Jake into check on her and the next thing we hear is "OH. . .MY. . .GOSH!" The rest of us jump up and run in there and low and behold- she pooped in the tub! Everyone was laughing including her and she kept pointing to it saying"poo-poo!" in a very proud voice.

Needless to say, everyone had a very early bedtime tonight. So there you have it. Sorry, it was longer than 2 minutes, okay a lot longer. But writing it all down was kinda fun, because now it makes me laugh. Actually, I just read this out loud and Aaron and I were laughing so hard we were both tearing up. (mainly at the "oh my gosh" from Jake- you had to be there!) Although I may not be laughing tonight when I'm up with a puking child.

(remind me why I'm having another baby- when I already have 3??!!)

Vacation Ideas?

Aaron and I will celebrate our 10 year anniversary next December (as in- a year away.) Forgive me- I like to plan ahead. We want to go on a really amazing, exotic vacation. Here is our criteria: it must be relaxing, no major sightseeing or walking, great hotel and of course. . . the beach! Someday we would love to do the whole Europe/sightseeing trip, but right now it's so rare that we get away, we really want to be able to just relax and enjoy each other. We have done Hawaii and of course it's amazing, but we'd like to try somewhere different this time. Do you have any suggestions? Where have you (or even someone you know/someplace you've heard about) traveled to and loved it? We will probably be traveling in November or January to avoid the high prices of holiday travel. Help me out here, I've got lots of planning to do before then!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am having computer problems, I can only type about 4 letters at a time and then the darn thing freezes- so this will be short.

Yesterday was the big 20 week ultrasound. The results are in. . .

We are thrilled although I find myself being quickly out numbered! We love baby boys in our house!

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and eat way too much yummy food! I'm hoping this computer will be fixed and back to normal by Saturday and then I can post some pictures. Until then- enjoy and don't forget to take a couple minutes to count your blessings. I know I definitely count each of you as blessings in my life!

Weekend Away

We're off to San Luis Obispo for the weekend. It's my grandma's 80th birthday and the whole family is getting together to celebrate. I'll take lots of pictures (note to self: don't forget camera!) Should be a fun weekend, see you on Monday!

It's craft time, ladies.

I was just getting ready to do this craft with my boys and I thought I'd share with my blogging friends. This is such a simple, fun craft that the kids love to do and your Thanksgiving guests will be amazed! We do this every year and it's always a hit.

Pumpkin Pie Placecards!!

Here are the instructions:

Buy the paper plates that have the rim around the outside. You can make 4 pieces of "pie" per plate. Unless you want to be skimpy- we like big pieces in our family!

Paint the inside dark orange and the rim brown, to resemble the crust. Let the kids go to town!
*Note: For the pumpkin part, I like to mix the orange with a little bit of brown to make the orange a little deeper.

After the paint dries, cut up your delicious pie. Then write the name of each guest on the crust of the pie.

Last, tear a cotton ball in half and puff it up a little bit. Then glue it to the pie to resemble whipped cream.

You're done- now wasn't that fun??

Before and After's

Remember that "broken window" I had in my home a few months back? Well, I'm sorry to say that I am about to reveal another problem area in my home. It's between the couch and the wall and it seemed to house our electronic "stuff." I have always hated this part of my home. Aaron went out of town last week and I decided there was no better time to fix it and surprise him when he got home. I headed over to The Bombay Company. If you didn't know- they are going out of business and are having a great sale. EVERYTHING is at least 20% off and most things are more. I went searching for a table and found the perfect one. Originally it was $110 and I got it for $65!

Before (yuck!) and after (ahh, much better!):My great find:
My next project was my front walk way. The landscaping in this particular area has always driven me nuts. I have tried a couple time to plant some things out there, but I never felt happy with it. I was on a roll from the table project above and decided to go for it. So while Aaron was still in San Francisco, I got a babysitter and went to Home Depot. (really relaxing with no kids, by the way!) I spent all day Friday weeding, fertilzing, digging and planting. I love the results! What an improvement, if I do say so myself!

Here are the before pictures:
And the after. . .

Welcome home, honey! Hope you like the improvements!

Family Pictures

We had family pictures taken last Saturday. Don't know about the rest of the world, but I get very anxious when that time of year rolls around. It's just so hard to get everyone clean, hair brushed and looking in the same direction. Well, I just saw a few proofs from the big day and a miracle has occurred. The pictures are amazing. Thank you to Elizabeth for taking such amazing pictures of my kids. She really captured their individual personalities- and I can't wait to see the rest. Check our her blog to see pictures of my cute kids, and also lots of other great pictures she's taken. Thanks Elizabeth- you're amazing!
PS- Sorry, but I won't be sharing any of the other pictures anytime soon- you'll be getting one in a Christmas card I'm sure!

My Favorite

Maybe I'm just wierd (???) but I have a favorite grocery store. Yes, that 's right, I love it so much that I drive quite a bit out of my way just to shop here. It's called VONS and it's the best! Let me tell you why I enjoy it so much.




First of all, they have great produce. Everything is fresh and yummy. The Vons that I shop at is always clean and even looks pretty inside. It's very aesthetically pleasing. They haveStarbucks inside- which is very convenient for those nights when grocery shopping is the only break from the kids- the perfect time for a little peppermint hot chocolate. They have always have plenty of stock and always carry the brands that I like. They even sell edible flowers- for that rare occasion when you need to decorate a chocolate covered cheesecake for your sisters bridal shower. But the best part. . . the customer service! Everyone is so friendly and helpful. Every employee greets you and asks if they can help with anything. I was there recently and asking the produce guy about the watermelons. He whipped out his knife and cut me out a chunk of the watermelon- so I could decide for myself if it's what I wanted. If we are there and the kids are fussing, the produce guy has actually cut up an apple for the kids to quiet them down. Are you kidding me? I'm sold! What prompted this post was what happened last night. I finally got to the store at about 9 pm. I was tired- really tired, you know- where your back and feet are killing? Anyway, after they bagged my groceries the nice clerk asked me if I needed help out and after apologizing for being a wimp, I said "Yes, please." So the bagger helped me out and then the clerk walked out with us (he was getting off work) and before I knew it, they both were unloading my groceries for me. And not only did they do it, but they were so friendly and helpful.

I know I could find lower prices and a closer grocery store, but I am true blue (or red) for Vons. What grocery store do you love? Or maybe that's just a bizarre question and most people don't "love" their grocery store? Whatever- try Vons, I know you'll love it too!

If you build it. . . they will eat it!

For Family Home Evening a couple weeks ago, we built a "Halloween House." It took us a good hour and a half to build it. We told the kids that they could take it down on Halloween night and eat it. Well, we were a couple days late, but they still had no problem jumping in and getting down to business. Addie even caught on. After an hour and a half of work, they demolished that house in about 5 minutes. They kept offering me pieces, "Come on Mom, it's so good!" Luckily I could use my upset stomach as an excuse- stale gingerbread and black frosting, gross!

Building it:
The finished project.

Tearing it down!

Halloween

Although we weren't with the kids on the actual Halloween night, we had plenty of opportunities to trick or treat at other Halloween festivities: preschool performance and lunch, ward trunk or treat, preschool party and a spooky dinner at Grammy's house (see my sister's blog for picture.) The kids had a blast trick or treating with Grammy and Grandpa- I doubt they even noticed we weren't there!

At the boys preschool - they sang some Halloween songs and did a little show and then had lunch for all the parents.
The flower fairy. I thought she would rip that hat off for sure, but she ended up leaving it on the whole time.

My superheroes!

I'm here.

I know it's been over a week since I last posted, bad girl! Really there hasn't been much new or "blog-worthy," for that matter. My main objective for last week was to keep the kids inside and occupied. The smoke from the numerous fires made the air "unhealthy" for our county. So that was quite a challenge. With the help of lots of TV, we made it through the week. I've never been more thankful for the blue sky, sun and real clouds- not smoke! The kids are especially loving the backyard now, since they were deprived from it all last week.

In other news, Aaron's cousin Jenna, passed away early Sunday morning. It's been quite sobering and upsetting to have gone through this week, wondering how she was doing each day and hoping that we wouldn't get "that" call. Unfortunately, we did on Saturday night. She had taken a turn for the worse and things were looking very grim. We will be leaving tomorrow morning for Dallas to attend her viewing and funeral. Wow, it makes me emotional just to write that. No one should have to attend a funeral for a 17 year old girl.

The events of this past week have made me quite reflective. The realization that something this horrible can happen to such an amazing, wonderful family is so scary to me. Really, really scary. Everytime I look at my kids my heart just clenches and my stomach turns over. I can't imagine the pain that their poor family is enduring right now. Then a few weeks ago, my good friend from college, Jenn, lost her mother. (she wrote the most beautiful post about it on her blog, sorry it's private- although I wish you all could read it.) These two events have really forced me to stop and change my thinking. I am trying really hard to ENJOY my kids, instead of just doing all the many things I need to get done each day. When all 3 of my babies are having meltdowns and crying, I am trying to laugh instead of scold. When they emptied out the whole container of new baby shampoo during bathtime and then disentigrated the empty toilet paper tube in the tub- I tried to smile and take a picture instead of spanking their little wet bottoms. The thought shakes me to my core, but you really NEVER know when something will happen. Each day that we are all together is such a blessing and I know I need to be more appreciative and grateful for ALL my blessings. Life goes too fast to always be saying no and trying to make things perfect.

So, on that sad note-- once again, I hope there are happier and brighter things in the future for my blog! Although we are missing Halloween with the kids (which I can barely stand to think about- I'll start crying again for sure), Aaron and I are going to TRY to enjoy these few days with each other and with his family. It's not ideal circumstances for a get-away, but like I said, I am trying harder to be thankful for what I have. For now, I am just unbelievably thankful for these 4 blessings- and of course the little one on the way!

Your Prayers are Needed

Aaron's twin cousins were in a very bad car accident early Sunday morning. One of the twins is okay, but the other is not doing so well. Some of you have been asking for updates on Jenna's condition. Thankfully, the bishop of her ward has started a website and is posting updates. (we were getting them 3rd of 4th person info before and the news was coming very slow!) The website is:

www.jennasigety.com

It's a very tough time for the family, but is sounds like things may be looking up just a tiny bit today. Let's hope so. She is the sweetest, most darling girl.

Another thing to keep in your prayers-- the poor firefighters and victims of the terrible fires that we are experiencing in S. California. It really is unbelievable. We know many people that have had to evacuate and don't know it they'll ever be able to go home. We have 2 fires burning in our city, but they are not bad. Although I've had to keep the kids in all day because the smoke and ash are so bad outside. They even canceled preschool tomorrow because they are using the community center as a center point for all the firetrucks. It's crazy out there. It's supposed to be even hotter tomorrow! The winds are also so bad, trees are down everywhere and it's dangerous to be outside!

Lot's going on right now- hopefully next week will bring better news.

Tyler Update

Sorry it has taken so long to give you all an update. This is seriously the first chance I've had to sit down and blog for a couple minutes.

So the ER really wasn't that bad. There was no wait and we were the first called back. They were so sweet to Tyler and he was cute. He was kinda nervous, so he stuck close to me, which I loved! The doctor pretty much told us that he didn't think the dilated pupil was due to head trauma. FYI: a dilated pupil from head trauma means serious problems. If that was the case, you would be in a coma, ready to call it quits. Obviously, Tyler wasn't experiencing those problems. So he figured it was from his little accident that morning. He was going down the slide and when his legs hit the bottom, his knees buckled and his head hit his knee. Who knew that could cause such problems? They finally decided that his knee must have his his actual eye and caused some trauma to the eye, resulting in the dialted pupil. So they had him go to the ophthalmologist this morning just to make sure everything still looked fine. And, of course, it did. I didn't mind taking him, but let's be honest, I was a tiny bit bugged that we had to sit there for an hour and a half (during preschool time!) when I knew that they would tell me he was fine and send us on our way. Oh well, one of those things that you have to do as a mom! They did dilate his eyes (thus they stylish shades below) so he opted to skip school today and hang out with mom. So, thanks for your concern. He's healthy and happy and busy as usual.

again

. . . we are on our way to the ER. I noticed this afternoon, that Tyler's right eye was dilated quite large. (it's hard to tell in this picture) Called the Dr. and his response was "Go to the ER now!" So off we go. Wish us luck. I have a feeling it's going to be a long afternoon/evening. No blood/broken bones/puking child = lots of waiting time in the ER. Bye.

ps- I'm only blogging because I am waiting for Aaron to get home to watch Jake and Addie. Don't think I am a bad mom.

Viva Las Vegas (and Cafe Rio!)

We decided to take the weekend off- and head up to Las Vegas! We left Addie with my parents and took the boys with us. We had such a great trip! We left Saturday around noon and it only took us less than 4 hours to get there. We stayed with my dear friend Emily. She used to live in San Juan Capistrano and we went to H.S. together and then roomed together at Ricks. She lives in Las Vegas now with her sweet husband, Ryan and their darling boys Thomas (6) and Matthew (2). They were so sweet to let us stay with them! We got there just in time to get the boys settled in and then Emily went to pick up 2 young women from her ward to babysit so the adults could go on a date. We grabbed some quick dinner at Cafe Rio. Is there anything more delicious than their chicken salad? It tasted so good and made me miss good ol' Provo! Then we left for the BYU/UNLV game. It was a great game and even better that BYU won! Plus, it was the perfect chance for Emily and I to sit for 3 hours and catch up- with no interruptions from kids!

Aaron was in heaven! As he was enjoying his salad he said "I think I might make a quick trip to Vegas next week for lunch to hit Cafe Rio, again. It's worth the 3 1/2 hour drive!"

Emily and Danielle- BFF!


The next morning Emily made us some yummy waffles and then we headed to the strip for some sightseeing. We hit the Bellagio- we saw their amazing gardens and took a visit to the candy store- which has amazing chocolate fountains and the most tasty homemade chocolate covered marshmallows. Then we walked over to Paris and saw the fountain and took some pictures. We had some time to burn before the next show at the Foutains of Bellagio, so we ended up at this fun mall right on the strip! They had a little lake in the middle of the mall that had real rain and thunderstorms every half hour. The kids thought it was amazing. The best part of the strip was the Bellagio fountain show. Wow- really amazing! Aaron and I were just as amazed as the kids. After that it was time to head home and pick up little Addie. Unfortunately, I think the rest of the tourists had the same plan because it took us just under 6 hours to get home. We finally made it and were sure excited to see our Addison. Thanks Mom and Dad for watching her! It sure made our trip easier, traveling with an 18 month old is always something I can do without!

The boys: Matthew, Thomas, Jake and Tyler.

Gardens at Bellagio


Chocolate Fountain
In front of the Fountain show.
The Fountains- they were absolutely amazing. It was a whole show- he water went as high as the hotel and was set to really great music.
Thanks to our friends, the Ellsworth's, for being so hospitable and fun to be with. We love you guys and can't wait to see you- hopefully soon! Next December- Polar Express!! Put it on the calendar!