check it out, pleeeeeeease

So, our choir recording was used to accompany a youtube video about the Savior and the Book of Mormon with Elder Holland's talk. Anyhow, the makers thereof are trying to get it on youtube's trending list, meaning they need lots of views. So give up 3.5 minutes and watch here and then share it about. You can never go wrong with Elder Holland and the music is pretty amazing as well.

baby update

I realized I don't have a funky baby counter on my side bar, so for those wondering I am 38 weeks and 4 days along, making me due in 10 days. I have been at 1 cm for my last 3 weekly appointments so nothing is happening yet, but baby is head down with a strong heartbeat so just doing his thing, getting fat. I am feeling great, and not really antsy because no one is getting married in 3 weeks, no one is coming to help from out of town so I don't feel like I need to get this baby out in time for those things. Our local help is flexible and willing and it's still hot, so incubating or nursing it's hot either way. We are VERY excited to meet this man, but just not feeling the pressure (no pun intended) to deliver by a certain time - a very nice feeling!

I will for sure keep y'all posted on any exciting developments.

Oh, the picture is Isaac - he still looks like that when he sleeps.

the not so good and the better

The not so good:

The school nurse called 2 days ago - Emily had hit her face on the floor in PE, please come pick her up.

The school nurse called yesterday - Isaac has a fever, please come pick him up.

Nora had a nightmare 2 nights ago and so climbed into bed with Ryan and me and my belly - not comfy.

I spaced on Activity Days yesterday even though it was written in plain King's English on my calendar.

Beacuse Isaac has been sick off and on since Saturday I had to ask Ryan to work from home Thursday morning so I can keep my OB appointment - I really don't like taking sickish kids to friends houses and REALLY don't like asking Ryan to be the helper on work days.

The better:

Emily asked for sponge rollers last night and her hair looks much prettier today - mental note - the big pink ones are better for shorter hair - duh!

Nobody crawled into bed with us last night, better sleep had by all (although I did have weird dreams about teaching jr.high choir).

The gang at choir gave me this onesie for baby. Uncle Michael does filming form MCO America and he is generally considered very handsome and charming and is known to be quite single - pitter pat my little heart.

It is supposed to get a little cooler this weekend, like not in the 100's, so hopefully the family room will stay cooler for conference watching.

boing boing

As many know, my girls have an obsession with what we call (thank you Ramona the Pest) boing boing curls aka - ringlets. I've meant to buy sponge rollers for ages, but I was told the place to get them was the dollar store and I never go to the dollar store so I never bought some. Last week I was doing the "what will my family possibly need in the 2-3 week haze before and after baby" shopping extravaganza at wal-mart and bought sponge rollers. Here are the end of Sunday results. Poor Emily, I sympathize with her plight. I always had short hair so it was more of a frizz fest than long boings, but she was happy as a clam so who cares!

Sometimes I worry about the girls loving their hair so much and getting vain, but then I remember how hard it is to be a self critical teenager (or earlier) and figure a few years of pure joy in ones own beauty is a great thing! BOING BOING!

Nora

Emily

Diana

more sewing (don't worry, this will stop soon)

Cousin Robert and his wife Stephanie are expecting a baby girl in a few weeks. Stephanie LOVES orange, so here is what we came up with - orange with ruffles! Yes, this is yet again the same pattern - yipeeee! Honestly, she doesn't need anything, we went to the baby shower and I have never in my life seen so many baby clothes - NEVER! If I was having a girl I would have asked for the dress back. (not really - a girl can never have too many clothes, just ask Aunt Di).

Last year, when my friend Mellissa was expecting her 3rd, she broke out her old baby stuff, bouncer, swing, etc, and decided to update. At the time, I thought it was a little silly recovering it all, but then I thought again about how visually crazy and cluttered our house gets with all the different patterns on  the extra furniture and saw the wisdom in her actions (sorry for doubting you Mellissa). For example, the above is the fabric of our bouncer - aughhhhhhhhhhhh! Add that to the southwest couch I despise, the striped chair, the carpet, etc, etc, and we have a visual nightmare - not soothing. Anyhow, I decided to recover the swing and the bouncy seat in plain, unbleached muslin - visual neutrality. Yes, I know they will get gross, but they are scotch guarded and machine washable and this is the last Chase baby, both pieces were second hand and so their life will end with this baby (unless someone out there is dying for baby equipment 10 + years old).

The results. I'm not an expert cover maker, but I think it will do the trick.

yep

Raise your hand if you love Elder Uchtdorf! Great talk yesterday. I can't wait for the rest of General Conference.

welcome to fall???

Isac burst into my room at 6:10 as I was getting ready for the day and asked with a big smile if he could have his jacket. ??!!?!?!? With his speech issues, if I don't know the context of the conversation it takes a few tries to understand sometimes. When I finally understood I was still confused until he stated matter of factly "It's FALL!" (like duh Mom!). Emily then wandered in with hope on her face and asked if it was going to be cool today (because it's Fall). I had to break it to them that it was 106 degrees yesterday and not planning on getting cool any time soon. It was a hard blow.

In other news, for reasons too shameful to admit (like we just ignore problems sometimes at our house instead of dealing with them), we rotted out under our kitchen sink. Issac and Ryan did the manly work of tearing out the floor down to the concrete on Saturday, but the walls are quite damaged. I've done bleach, hydrogen peroxide, and a fan, fabreeze, dryer sheets and baking soda, but the mold smell (and I'm assuming presence), persists. So we get to do fun, unseen, not exciting home improvement. Ryan and I are good at a lot of things, but making decisions about home improvement and acting on them is not one of them - it causes stress and tension. I have a lot of respect and admiration of couples who are good at those kinds of things, but let's just say, Ryan and I will hopefully never buy a fixer-upper. I'll just leave it at that - grrrrrrrrrrrrr!

I hope Fall is blooming where you live!

building

I sometimes forget to just get down on the floor and play with my man-child and beauty-girls, but I'm always glad when I do.

the river and tickets

Tickets are now on sale at the Mesa Art Center for EVMCO's annual Christmas Concert! It is going to be especially lovely this year and I would really encourage you to come and enjoy the beauty!

We headed down to the Mesa Arts Center to buy Ryan's ticket (service fees make me grumpy) and took some time to play in the "river". It was grand fun.

to aunt mel

Dear Aunt Mel,

Mom, Isaac, Sarah and I planted flowers yesterday. I like planting flowers with you better. Arizona dirt is hard to dig in.

I miss you.

love, Nora

We had some extra time on Saturday afternoon, so I sent the 3 big girls upstairs for an early shower and hair wash and then we did braids so they could have "fluffy" hair for Sunday. We decided fluffy dresses go with fluffy hair and here are the results. Thanks Grammy for the closet full of beautiful fluffy dresses!

Sarah did not get fluffy hair, but she had a great time before church twirling in her fluffy dress.

On a slightly related note, are the 80's back full swing (fluffy hair reminds me of the 80's) - not the early punk 80's but the late rayon flowered dress 80's??? The young, hip crowd in our ward are showing up in fitted rayon shifts with in purple floral etc (but paired with ankle boots) and the old lady crowd in our ward are sporting the same fabric but in longer belted styles. Part of me likes the more feminine, fitted, tailored look - the skirt and fitted t-shirt thing are getting OLD! - but I don't know if I'm ready to re-do my wardrobe post pregnancy in 80's - eek.

haloween teaser and sarah

Sarah is really busting out in the personality area! Some if it is really fun and some is really the pits. I don't like it when I have to start disciplining my kids because they all of a sudden have opinions and backbone.

Here is the pile that's been living on my sewing table for a week or two - yep, Rapunzel is in the works, actually two Rapunzels. I had extra fabric and the aformentioned Sarah with a backone really wanted a "pretty dress me!".

Thank heavens for the internet. There are crazy sewers out there who analyze every aspect of a costume, break it down and voila! you know what to do. The main sewing and dying is done (I bought white satin 5 yards for $5 at Wal-Mart so had to dye it). I just have some trim and lace to add to the skirts and we will be done. I just don't think these are going to get all the crazy embroidery that the original has - sorry girls.


In my research I found one lady who does custom costume sewing; her Rapunzel goes for $259! I told Diana she could pay me in foot rubs. Of course, psyco lady does the embroidery (with a machine), so she has a better product!

As for the hair - I honestly don't know - we'll see. 

Isaac wants to be a robot and Emily and Nora are recycling costumes (yipeeeee). Ryan will be a Jedi for the rest of his life; so that leaves me and baby. We might just get a Halloween t-shirt and onsie and call it good. If I were really great I would make myself Princess Leia and baby Yoda, but we shall see.

more sewing with marian in the afternoon

We were at Wal-Mart several weeks ago and of course had to stop at the $1.50 table of fabric and of course had to buy blue fabric (it's a disease). This Summer we inherited several patterns from Grandma's stash, so dresses were born. I love making little girls feel pretty.

Next up - Halloween costumes. . . .

empathy

As evidenced in the labor day photos (see below)

I am getting pretty big out here, and although I have been pregnant several times, I always forget that the last 4 weeks are really quite uncomfortable. This time around we have had some goods and some bads. For the goods: I've only had heartburn maybe 3 times this entire pregnancy - can we say yipeeeee?!!. For the bads: My feet are a lot more swollen than they have ever been and a lot sooner in the day too, especially after a Sunday. Granted, I do not sit down nearly often enough, so after Nora got on the bus and Isaac and Sarah were down for naps, I declared an afternoon of "couch rest" (that's related to but not as severe as bed rest). It lasted about 45 minutes and then I was theroughly bored and done. So, now I'm making granola and writing this (yes, sitting down, but not with my feet up).

I can't imagine how hard it would be to be on bed rest, as many, many have had to be. 45 minutes taught some empathy and I'm grateful to be up and about, even if my feet are fat and I hurt a little.

On a random side note; One of Ryan's priests plays high school football and is seriously thinking about whether or not to play next year. He told his mom, "I'm just so tired, and I hurt!" I hope he remembers that feeling in 5 years when he has a pregnant wife - tired and hurting??? sounds like pregnancy to me!

Here is another picture of my bee-you-tee-ful belly. Isaac had a pack of Cars stickers and thought that baby brother needed two to let him know he was doing a good job in there.

labor day outing

It has been so hot here I asked Ryan if we could go somewhere cool for a little outing on Labor day Saturday. He complied, because he's nice like that. We headed up to Payson for a morning of fish hatchery and playing in the creek. We ate lunch and were back by 1 or 2 having had a lovely morning and ready to face the heat again.

I gave Sarah a hair cut (getting rid of the mullet) and it was a little crazy for a week as it softened up. And, Aunt Jessica, she is now an early twoodler - ie - a PILL!

Who knew a fish hatchery would be so cool? Well, I did, but I'm glad I was right and the kids LOVED it!

Beauty - nuts!

Diana did NOT fall into the creek - a major accomplishment!

Isaac finally conquered his fear of the log bridge and crossed himself.

Emmy has no fear and sat in the creek on purpose.

For those of you wondering what I'm looking like these days with the belly of wonder.

end of summer

Here we are! End of the Summer pictures (rest assured I could have shared more had I been willing to sort through all the pictures from all the nice cameras that were there), but you get the drift, it was a great Summer.

Now I give you: EMMY"S BIRTHDAY!! Pinata, chocolate pie, presents, cousins - a great time had by all!

Thanks Summer, let's do it again soon! We miss you.

Here are some random shots of Summer (We are almost done, I promise, just Emmy's b-day left).

Beautiful afternoon in the sprinklers

Sarah and Isaac enjoying Strawberries with Grandpa

They were so good, Grandma just finally brought out the whole big bowl! By the way, Grandma and Grandpa made it to China and have started teaching!

Before we left, we cleaned out the basement so the carpet could be ripped up and the mold problem could be solved once and for all. The clean-up included all the DeOren's dresses and the hats.

Yes, that is cousins riding behind the Rav on a wooden sled in the hay field. It's a blast! Of course it was a lot different when we were kids and cows lived in that field - ever have cow pie in your hair and teeth????? I'm glad the cows are gone.