Ultrasound Pictures

Well on my birthday we went in for our big ultrasound. We decided to take the kids since Liz is showing a little more interest now. We had to wait forever though because the lady took an ER patient before us. So needless to say by the time we got back there the kids were not very happy. Baby was moving around a ton (thanks to my apple juice). It was fun watching the little wiggle worm. The technician we had was still in training and wasn't certified yet so she took forever to find all the things they have to check. The machine is really expensive and advanced, so you can see the skeletal structure in all the pictures, and they could see the different organs too. Well while the lady was finding all her stuff on the list I would see some stuff that looked like girl parts and some that looked like boy parts.

Finally she asked if we were finding out the sex and wouldn't you know it that baby had it's legs crossed! During the entire ultrasound the baby was everywhere showing all kinds of stuff and when we get to the part I've been looking forward to all month no go. Oh so frustrating! So she went to show the ultrasound stuff to the actual technician to see if she needed to come in. Then she gave us our copies, and they are actually printed on photo paper! So I actually got a great scan. She said that if we waited 3 weeks we could find out for sure. Which I'll be honest irritated me big time! I could have gone in at 18 weeks but didn't want to go in too early since we had this problem with Clayton so I waited on purpose so I wouldn't have to come back. So I'll be going back next week (only because the hospital isn't going to charge me until we find out the sex or I give up... nice policy). So lets hope this baby cooperates this time! Enjoy the pictures, I'll warn you they look a little creepy since you see the skeleton.

Birthdays!!

Well first off let me say Happy Birthday to my brother Jason. Jason and I are 28 now. We didn't do much for my birthday. And since James would be in charge of pictures there isn't any of me. He's not as into pictures as me. But now I have the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice to watch (all 6 hours of it), and another season of American Dad to watch. Now I know what I will be doing during the kids nap time for the next 2 weeks or so.

Lizzie turned 3 on the 16th! Lizzie wanted a castle cake this year. My friend Tiffany let me borrow her pans from her daughters birthday. It took forever to decorate, but Lizzie loved it. She laughed so much when we were singing "Happy Birthday". She did manage to blow one candle out herself, but needed help with the rest.

She got Disney Princess stuff again, and really had fun opening the presents.

Clayton enjoyed the big box that Lizzie's chair came in. Brooke was trying to "find" him. And then Lizzie and Brooke were playing dress up.

The chair that Tiffany and Doug got her. It's already been put up since we're trying to potty train Lizzie and I didn't want to have to clean it up if she had an accident on it.

Tahoe Birthday Celebrations

Well our original plan for our vacation was to go out on the 19th and so we would be there for my birthday and right after Lizzie's. I had mentioned to James that I wanted to get a pedicure while on vacation (I knew I'd have someone to watch the kids, and I could really relax). James' parents got me one for my birthday while we were there.... it was heaven. Lizzie got some cupcakes. It was a fun birthday party (she's been talking about it since we came home). It makes it more fun because she knows what's going on now. She attempted to blow out the candles, but I had to help her. I got a banana cream pie (my favorite) for my birthday. With Liz's birthday only 6 days before mine we get really sick of cake in the week after her birthday. Lizzie helped me blow out my candles too.

Clayton loved the cup cakes of course. In fact the rest of the trip he kept asking for cup cakes ALL DAY! It was cute that he learned a new word, but got annoying after his requests became him whining. Lizzie also got a Disney Princess color/craft book. She loves it of course. She's really into the Disney Princesses.

And she got a beautiful Cinderella outfit. So now I think that's what she is going to be for Halloween. It was very nice and came with accessories.

Clayton also took to Grandpa quickly on the trip. Grandpa read to him and once you do that with Clayton he is your little shadow. I'm sure that Grandpa didn't mind though.

Swimming In Lake Tahoe

Okay well we found out on Friday, September 4th at 11am that we could go ahead and just take our vacation a few weeks early because of James' shoulder. So we were scrambling to get our stuff together and got out of town around 1:30pm. Well we didn't forget much, but we did forget my swimsuit. Let me tell you early September is not the most ideal time to be able to find ANY swimsuits, but being pregnant REALLY didn't help. In the long run though I really didn't need a swimsuit, the water was too low. Grandpa came with us and took pictures from the beach. I'd say we were at least 50 feet away from him.

The kids did have fun though. It wasn't too much for Lizzie, and Clayton loved being able to lean over and pick up rocks to throw. And then when he discovered the sand he was really in heaven (of course he tried to eat it). James and I were very disappointed in the water level. We were really excited to take the kids swimming when it was still pretty warm. James decided to experiment and walk out as far as he could to see how deep it got. Well he got out pass the boat marker and it still wasn't over his waist. Lizzie couldn't even see him anymore. James is guessing he went out 1/4 of a mile. Lizzie even walked out halfway to find him. There were a few other people that came to the beach while she was walking out to him. I'm sure they were wondering why we were letting our little girl walk out that far into the lake... but then they got in the water too. The kids still had a blast, and that's what we were hoping for. Oh and just a fun fact Clayton is STILL wearing his 6 to 12 month bathing suit from last year. My little peanut.

Tahoe Vacation Part 2

The kids enjoyed a lot of time outside while we were in Tahoe. Lizzie loves and remembered helping Grandma in May watering the flowers, so she asked to do that a lot. She was a little more interested in spraying people though than watering. The hose has a leak too so Lizzie was drenched by the time she was done. Clayton of course was trying to get sprayed with the hose. I think I might start calling him fish since he loves the water so much.

And one day all the kids where swimming. Lizzie isn't too much of a water person. She doesn't like to get wet. Clayton of course loves the water and thought the sprinkler was amazing. Rhiannon and Shawn had goggles and Lizzie really wanted to try them on. So Rhiannon let her. I didn't see a point because Lizzie wouldn't even sit in the water. But that's a kid thing for you I guess. One the middle picture on the bottom of this collage you'll see why I want to call Clay a fish. For some strange reason he loves to dunk his face and head in the water on purpose. He even does it during bath time. He's so silly. Since the kids were all occupied with the water we decided to try and play a board game outside without the kids asking if they could play (Lizzie is now in that stage). Well it took us a bit to figure out how to play the games since the directions were MIA. And within 15 minutes all the kids but Clayton were more interested in what we were doing. We did manage to play though while the kids watch "A Goofy Movie" (I Think our kids watch that movie about 50 times while we were there).

Tahoe Vacation Part 1 (click on the picture collage to make it bigger)

The day we went to Lamoille James slipped on the basement stairs, didn't let go of the banister and did something to his shoulder. I made him go the the ER the next day and he was not allowed to go back to work until we knew what was wrong for sure (he wasn't allowed to use his arm at all). Well since he was off we decided to move up our Tahoe vacation and take it then (rather than him go back to work for a few weeks and then leave on vacation).

We had a lot of fun there. The kids loved vacation time and were nice to me and stayed on their normal nap time and night time schedules. We were very excited we could go on vacation early because James and I really wanted to go see his Dad perform. So the Sunday before Labor Day we all went and watched Grandpa and hung out until they did fireworks over the lake too. We were pleasantly surprised that Clayton really liked the fireworks. In fact he'd look at me and say, "More Green." Made me laugh a lot.

And of course we stayed at the house a lot just relaxing. Clayton was trying to find his inner musician. And Lizzie decided that she would really like to be a cowgirl. Many times during the trip Lizzie told me she wanted to go to the Jelly Belly Factory. I guess that's going to have to be an annual trip for us when we go to Tahoe. The things the kids remember.

Lamoille Canyon

I'm way behind on my posts. On August 22 my Dad was playing in a golf tournament. So James, my Mom, the kids, and I decided to take a drive out to Lamoille Canyon. James had never been there, and we thought the kids would love the water. We got some food for some lunch and took the drive. It's only about 45 minutes out, so we enjoyed a short little drive. I'm sure James wasn't too impressed (how can you be that impressed with Lamoille when you grew up in Lake Tahoe?!), but we all had a lot of fun. Especially the kids. Clayton and Lizzie loved the water, Clayton was just sitting in it most of the time. And the water is always FREEZING up there! James showed Clay and Lizzie how to through rocks (Clay has been obsessed with rocks since then). It was a fun little outing and the weather was perfect.