Liam at 3

What can I say about Liam? He is my little snuggle buddy. He is such a sweet little guy who loves his Mom. (and his Mom sure loves him) He can be super crazy and energetic. He is super funny and knows it. He can tell jokes that are actually funny. He is obsessed with potty humor (not as funny) and we have been trying to break it. He loves playing with his brother and sister. He loves to tinker with things. He would much rather play with toys or read books than watch TV. He has a weak stomach and will dry-heave at bad smells or the thought of bad smells. He loves to make up random songs. He will be so sad when Aubrey and Dallin go back to school and he is stuck at home with me. He still sucks his thumb and loves his blankies. He pretty much enjoys doing anything. He just has a passion for life and having fun. Here are some favorites that I haven't covered... Color: Orange, Food: Tacos & PB/J sandwiches, Song: Scripture Power & Call Me Maybe (and pretty much any other song. He loves music), Activities: Swimming, riding his bike, looking at books, dancing, Favorite places to go: Disneyland, the park, the pool, Liam is my little buddy and I am so glad he is part of our family!

Pregnancy update

I just wanted to document how this pregnancy has been and how I'm feeling at 26 1/2 weeks pregnant. I have looked back at older posts to see if this is how I was feeling in previous pregnancies, but I didn't document them well enough. At 26 1/2 weeks I think this has been my hardest pregnancy. (Glenn does not agree) I am just constantly hot! We are going through a heat wave, but even inside our air conditioned house I am hot. I am obsessed with Sonic's ice and am constantly drinking ice water. WARNING: (This may be too much information for some of you, but pregnancy does some nasty things) At about 22 or 23 weeks I started hurting (in a very private area). I just thought it was my ligaments not holding everything together, after all, it is my 4th pregnancy. A couple weeks later I realized they were not ligaments, but varicose veins! Ahhh! I had never experienced this before. It is a constant pain and gets worse the more I sit, stand or walk. So I spend a lot of time laying down with an ice pack. I have discovered that riding my parents exercise bike at full recline may help a little so I am on it every day for about 20-30 min. If I over-do it I feel like I am being stabbed in a not fun place. Enough with that, the kids all love to feel the baby move. Aubrey will just lay next to me with her hands on my stomach waiting to feel her. She is going to be such a good sister and hopefully a big helper. The other day Liam said to Glenn "Our baby is silly. She is always jumping and kicking mommy." I really think he does understand (to an extent) what is happening. I have been reading a ton about natural childbirth to prepare myself mentally for it. I'm getting really excited for the birth, and it's still 3 months away. While I ride the bike I watch the show "A baby story". Periodically, Aubrey will watch it with me. The other day the kids were talking about when I go to the hospital to "get the baby out". Dallin said "ya, they are gonna cut her out." Aubrey responds with "Nuh uh! Mommy is going to push her out through her private part!" That just made me chuckle a little and Glenn just shook his head. We think the baby's name will be Reese Marion, but aren't positive. We like the name Reese, and Marion is my Dad's mom's name. She passed away when my Dad was 17 and for some reason I have been thinking about her through this pregnancy. Oh, I don't think I ever posted about my follow up ultrasound. I took Baylee and Becka with me because I thought they would enjoy seeing the baby, which they did. Everything looks great and the baby stayed still so we could get nice clear pictures of her. Last, I am sick of gaining weight and can't wait to be able to do nice hard workouts again. I am sick of getting winded from doing little things like walking up the stairs, or rolling over in bed. I feel huge and have gained over 20 lbs already. Oh well, at least the baby is healthy, right? Well, I think that's enough rambling for now. I will update again if anything changes.

OC Zoo

Another fun field trip we went on was to the Orange County Zoo. Believe it or not, it was my first time there. (and yes, I grew up in Orange County). They had a petting zoo where the kids could brush the animals. I was very impressed with how clean they kept it in there. All the kids had a blast brushing the goats, except Liam. He would walk up to them with his brush, but would not touch them. I don't blame him, they were bigger than him. After walking around looking at all the animals laying in the shade (it was so hot) we went for a train ride. Half way through the ride Dallin says "Mom, this is really boring." Then there's Liam who talked non-stop about how fun the train was and how we need to go on it again. It was a fun day!

We also have been to the pool a ton this summer, went to Mormon night at Angel Stadium (Angels won! Great game with fireworks after!) and have had a couple Girls nights out. We had a lot of fun with the Hurley's here and are so sad they had to go back to Texas.

Bone dig/lake trip

Another fun thing we did while the cousins were here was have a dinosaur bone excavation. I had been saving nasty bones for like a month. Mostly rib bones and pork shoulders, but it was nasty. Finally the day came to get rid of them. I buried them in a planter in my parents backyard and let all the kids go at it. They really enjoyed it! They each had their own shovel and paintbrush (to dust the bones off). Dallin knew I had been collecting bones for this, but was so good about playing along saying they were dinosaur bones. He actually made me believe that was what he really thought.

The day after our bone dig we packed up and headed to Lake Elsinore. Anybody who knows me knows that my favorite place to be in on the lake. I will admit that Lake Elsinore is not my favorite lake, but it ended up being a perfect day out there. The water was smooth most of the day to where I was actually able to take the boat & sea doos for a spin. Ah, I loved it! My kids share my love for the lake and had such a great time. Before we dropped the anchor Aubrey was afraid the boat was going to float away so she was crying and holding onto it. (I remember doing that as a kid too. She is her mothers daughter) Once it was tied up she was fine. We had all 10.5 of my parents grandchildren with us. It was so fun being together. We will be heading to Lake Mead in a week and the kids can't stop talking about it. I will admit that I am probably just as excited as they are. (I just wish I could ski)

Field trip

This past week was full of outings and fun! It actually wiped me out. On Monday we swam with our cousins at our pool. Tuesday we had a field trip to Papa's shop & to Uncle Kyle's Fire Station. At Papa's shop the kids ran straight to the warehouse and played on the SeaDoos. Once we were packing up to leave they noticed the rock wall and thought it would be a good idea to climb it. It was awesome.

Since Uncle Kyle's fire station is only about 5 minutes from Papa's shop we arranged to visit there too. The kids LOVED seeing everything on the truck and especially seeing Uncle Kyle in the full fire get-up.