Our New House

We got the house!!! I'm so excited. It's such a nice house. The girls have a HUGE room to share and it has a computer area and Ethan's room is a lot bigger than his one in Twin. We hardly have any work to do at all and it has a three car over sized garage that you drive around the house to get to. There is a park across the street and in the back is the grade school Ethan will go to. We get to move in the end of February so we've got a little wait but that's okay. I'm patient. I can't wait to be in my new house and start organizing! There is so much space for storage!

Christmas

Here we are having a fun Christmas morning. Even Lauren got to have fun since her fever finally broke around 1:00 in the morning. Poor baby. Her favorite gifts by far were her princess dress up clothes from Brett and I and the Princess tea set from Grandma T. Ethan's favorite was the 2 dollar dart gun Lauren picked out as a gift for him. Who says great toys have to be expensive? Of course the Dora and Diego scooters were a big hit as well. Ethan starts baseball this coming Spring so he was excited to see a new E-man sized bat with woofle balls. He's so funny, he hits right handed and left handed equally as well, the same as when he draws and writes! I always love Christmas day, Christmas Eve as well. We read the Christmas story to the kids on Christmas Eve right before letting them open their night before gift. It was fun and we loved being here together with so many loved ones. Poor Lauren has been crying all day because her Kennedy left to go back home this morning. My kids love their cousins so much. Well, maybe Newman and Jerry (aka: Lauren and Boston) could get along a little better.
Today we met with a realtor and I think we've found our new home! We made an offer and now we have sit on our hands and wait. Really it's perfect for us. Completely remodeled 1951 home. It has so much character and I love it. Plus it meets the two prerequisites stipulated by our children: fireplace, upstairs. Check. It also meets my own stipulations: lots of storage area, a place for my upright piano, pretty cabinets, no work required, inexpensive per square foot, new carpet that no one else has gotten their gross germs on. I hate used carpet! I don't even like taking my shoes off at other peoples houses and walking on it because it grosses me out. Anyway, everyone cross your fingers that our offer is accepted.

The Polar Express Pictures

My handsome boys and their hot chocolate

I found out at this point that Ethan wants a Red Rider bb gun from Santa, riiiiiight


Okay so this isn't the train ride but I had to put it in. When I can down stairs today Ethan had created Monster house, See the house shape made of movies, the paper windows, the movie case chimney, and, my favorite, the red monster house teeth! Creative little destructo boy

Welcome to the Polar Express!

Or at least Horseshoe Bends version of it! We had a blast and the kids LOVED it.
Photography by Ethan of the happy couple

Back off ladies, He's mine! hee hee

We got caroled



Lauren trying to hide from the camera, but she made the mistake of turning to face it.

Grandpa Wonacott

My Grandpa Wonacott died last night. We just moved up here to Middleton on Sunday night and then Monday night my mom called and said I had better get to the hospital in Nampa because they just took Grandpa there. I didn't make it in time but from what I heard about how he died I'm very glad I didn't. I'm sad, but at the same time I'm very glad he isn't still going through what he was yesterday. When I think of Grandpa I think of tobacco pipes, tattoos and coffee. I can't walk past the coffee isle in the store without thinking about him. I used to love waking up in the morning to the smell of coffee brewing. I don't drink it myself but it's one of my favorite smells thanks to him. I'm having a hard time being very sad about all this. I keep picturing him wherever he is with my Grandma who died 17 years ago. The most fun part of this is thinking about him walking! Or running just because he can. He's been paralyzed since he was 36 years old so he's got to be loving that. I'm also grateful that he was able to meet Lily before he died. Here is a picture of him with Lauren when she was a baby. He has long sleeves on so you can't see all his tattoos. I'm kind of sad about that and wish I'd taken a picture of them. I used to love looking at all the different tattoos all over him. I hate tattoos, I think they are ugly and only get worse as you get older, but for some reason they fit my Grandpa. He got all of them when he was active during World War 2. I'm going to miss him. He taught me important thing like how to get a wheel chair into a wheelie (is that how you spell that???) and go all around the house without falling. I got so good I could keep it up all the way down the handicap ramp without biffing it. And he taught me how to chase down chickens. That was always fun. I always respected him because even though he was stuck in a chair, he was always doing something. He made the best apricot jelly! He was always making wood things and he had a green thumb! The man could make anything grow. I don't know how my mom came from him; she can kill a cactus within a month. I'll always remember Grandpa's trailer. He and Grandma were dirt poor thanks to his accident and already having 7 children. A kid, a set of twins, a kid, a set of twins, and a kid. I honestly don't know how they got through it. Anyway, because of their situation, they lived in a trailer as long as I can remember, and all around the trailer were growing things. They had beautiful flowers and vines and bushes growing everywhere possible and I loved it. He was my last living Grandpa so now I only have Grandma's, three of them actually. Brett's grandpa's both past away when he was on his mission so I never got to meet them. But we've still got Grandma Ross, Grandma Theiman, and Grandma Pendleton. Wow, my blog has been depressing lately. First Bum, now Grandpa. What's next?

Sold!

Saturday Morning

Look at my baby holding her head up!



Our house sold today! And we have to be out by the 28th. So we are moving over Christmas; this should be interesting.
Anyway, here are a few pictures of the ross rats. Enjoy.

Lily's blessing dress

Go check it out. My Mom-in-law is an artist when it comes to sewing so I found the dress I want and she said she would make it for me! I didn't ask her because she's a busy lady, but she offered so I'm pretty happy. She also said that she would make a matching one for Lauren to wear since she didn't get to make her blessing dress, Lauren wore the one I wore as a baby. She's got to make the other grand daughter's dresses and they were beautiful. I'm excited. It's going to be so fun to see my girls in matching outfits for her blessing.
On a side note, we got a promising offer on our house today so our house might sell next week! Which means I have no idea where Lily will be blessed. It's going to be the first Sunday of February so probaly it will be in Middleton where we will most likly be living. But who knows.
Here is the link!
http://www.onesmallchild.com/detailviews.aspx?productid=3763#

I'm getting rid of it

All of it. I'm giving myself until we go to Disneyland at the end of April, but I will lose all this extra "me" I'm carrying around lately. For some reason, I've never had a metabolism at all. If I want to be thin, I have to count calories and constantly exercise. Unlike some of my so called friends(Julie, Fonda) who are lucky enough not only to lose their baby fat, but get thinner than they were before with little to no effort. Well not me. I gained 60 with Ethan and lost it all. I gained 45 with Lauren and had to do some serious work outs to lose it all. I started out this pregnancy at 128 pounds and I'm down 29. Only 18 more to go. So if anyone happens to see me just say, "Hi Fatty!" I need all the discouragement I can get in order to be motivated enough to exercise it off again. I love my little Lily so much, she is my angel, but dang this sucks.
You all will notice my new ticker at the top. It stays until my BMI is back where it was. I'm so glad I have a husband who will work out with me. I have got to have a buddy or I just won't do it. Oh, yeah. I guess I had better stop downing every truffle and every piece of cake I come across. That would probably help.

Snow Day continued

Ethan wanted a snow rocket NOT a snowman

Snow Day, yay!

Dad the Scrooge

Oh so true.
http://www.scroogeyourself.com/?id=1136517735

Elf Yourself

Couldn't help it. I saw this on Carrie's blog and loved it so...
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1136358528

Ode to Bum

Yesterday our kitty Bum was acting funny and like he was in pain. I was watching him during the day and by night I knew he was going to die. I was going to take him to the vet today, but I'm sorry to say he didn't make it through the night. I don't know exactly what happened but I'm sure it was some kind of poison. We don't have a thing on our property that isn't stored how it's supposed to be so I'm assuming one of our neighbors hasn't been taking care of their stuff. Maybe he drank some antifreeze someone left out. I don't know, either way we are all very sad that Bum is gone. Ethan has been crying since I told the kids. I found Bum on his bed at 6 this morning and he was gone so it happened sometime during the night. I won't pretend I'm upset to lose the responsibility, but Bum was such a sweet cat. He always had purrs for me and was so good with the kids. He was an outside cat, since I hate inside animals, but we would let him in to play occasionally. Lauren loved to pick him up around the middle and carry him around like a teddy bear. Bum had more patience than me because he would just go floppy and let her do whatever she wanted, she was never ruff. Personally I would rather have lost Tuke. I'm more of a cat fan. They are so easy going and basically require no maintenance. Tuke is a pain in the butt and always needs attention. I love him, but he's annoying.
Well, I have a funeral to look forward to tonight. The kids and I are going to go bury Bum behind the baseball field at my parents school. I don't have the heart to move Bum so I called my dad and he's coming to load him up in a box to take to the school. Poor Bum! I feel so bad for how much he suffered. I said a few prayers for him last night asking that he die quickly so he didn't have to be so sick anymore and I guess my prayers were answered. I'm thankful for that anyway.

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving was very unique. I have never done it without tons of family and a huge dinner with turkey, ham, cranberry sauce, all the trimmings. However, this year Brett had only Thursday off so all three kids and I packed up and went to Middleton for more than a week. We loved it, loved being together, and while I was sad we didn't get to spend it with my extended family this year, it was perfect because my family was together. Brett, Ethan, Lauren, Lily and me. I'm most thankful this year that we could be together. We didn't do what is, in my mind at least, a traditional dinner, but it was awesome. Some of you may not know, but Brett loves to cook. And he's great at it! How lucky am I? He made a Prime Rib in the dutch oven and I made peach Bavarian and potatoes with carrots. Then we made Au jus with horseradish cream sauce. Then I did the Pendleton traditional Sprite with Grape juice, that I juiced myself. I'm so impressive. Oh! And Brett made butter horns that melted in my mouth! So yummy. I admit I was dubious of Brett's ability to make a good prime rib. I'm a prime rib addict and very picky. Brett, babe, I'll never doubt you again. It was as good as Jacker's and I won't admit how much I ate. Mmmmm.
So my list of things I'm grateful for, not necessarily in order:
1. Having a knowledge of the gospel, where would I be without it
2. My family, who are my world
3. Having Lily join our family, I was worried about having 3 children, but it is as natural as anything! Lily is so sweet and easy going that it feels like she's always been here. Maybe she always has been in a way. I'm so thankful that we have been able to have our children and without difficulty
4. Brett's promotion and getting to live by Mom and Dad Ross. This is an exciting development and I can't wait to see where it takes us
5. All of the comforts that we have. I sometimes forget how much I have and get sucked into thinking how much I want. Then I stop myself and take inventory of what I do have. I have a comfortable home with heat, air conditioning, running water, vehicles that run well, growing grass, a fenced yard, a garden, etc. Then there are the extra things we have that we certainly didn't NEED to buy like ipods, the computer, cable Internet access(Brett insisted), the flat screen mounted on my wall, more furniture than we need, toys, books, pictures, and on and on. I'm pretty spoiled actually and I'm so grateful to live here in the United States where we have so many material things, but also so many opportunities and privileges.
6.Education. Okay, so maybe my education is temporarily on hold, but I love to learn and go to school so I can't wait until my kids are all in school so I can go back! I'm very grateful for Brett's continued perseverance in finishing. It's hard and we don't get to spend as much time together, but completely worth it. I want to be a life long student and always strive to learn and grow.
7.Diapers! Can you imagine life without them? Yuck.
8.Billy Blanks and his Boot Camp series. Twenty-seven pounds down since Lily's birth, 20 more to go. Billy has helped me do it before and I know he can do it again! Hopefully before we go to Disneyland, I'd like to have some pants to wear before then and I've got some pounds to lose before I fit into any of my jeans. Wait, okay I can fit into one pair, but just because I can doesn't mean I should.
9. And probably the number one thing I'm grateful for are great parent-in-laws. I love my husband more than anything. He's everything I always told myself I wanted in a husband. I knew before we got married that he would be great, but he's exceeded even my expectations. Shoot, my own Grandma who's never liked me much suddenly loves me so she can have Brett privileges. Just today she asked me how I ever got him. Gee, thanks for the confidence grams. It's a good thing I have a sense of humor. That and I've always thought she was completely unbalanced. So who do I have to thank for this? The people who raised him and tamed him. It was a tough job, but they really couldn't have done better.

Our birth story and stats

Okay, more pictures. I can't take enough. So my water broke Saturday morning and we waited all day for labor to start. We went shopping, went for a walk on the canyon, went out for lunch. Nothing. So around 6 or 7 we decided we had better go to the hospital to keep an eye on how the baby was doing and make sure no infection had happened. The staff and my doctor really wanted to induce me and check me and all that stuff, but I said lets just wait and see how this goes. Around 11 I kicked Brett out and told him to go home to bed. He drives me crazy when he can't do anything. He sits there and fidgets and makes me want to smack him! Then I tried to sleep, in between the nurses coming in and out to check my temperature, blood pressure and the babies heart beat. We were perfect and I had no signs at all of going into labor. Sunday morning my doctor came in and asked me what I would let them do. I told him I wanted to wait a while longer and see if maybe I could get labor going myself. Normally I'm not the natural inductions kind, but I was going crazy and stuck in a hospital, one of my least favorite places to be. After Doctor Coleman left I tried a natural induction method and it worked. I was giving myself contractions that went from 10 to 8 to 6 and then to 5 and 6 minutes apart. I stopped and let my body take over after about an hour which was about 1 pm. Brett was their having fun timing my contractions on his ipod. He was driving me nuts with the clicking! Once I stopped forcing them, they started to putter out and get farther apart, but that kick start was all my body needed. At around 1:30 my body took over and I was in labor whether I wanted to be or not. Let me just say, I've never taken anything during labor. I've been 100% all natural up to this point and I couldn't believe how much worse these contractions hurt then with my other two children. I was in serious pain and on all fours having Brett rub my back as hard as he could. When the contractions got about 4 minutes apart I told Brett to tell the nurses they could check me now. I hadn't allowed any checks yet because my water had broken. I didn't want to be put on a time limit, but I knew this was it so there wasn't any need to worry. Doctor Coleman came in and was pleased I had gone into labor. He checked me and said I was 4 cm dilated and 90% effaced. About 10 minutes later I told Brett I was getting close and to have the nurse come check. I was at 6 cm and complete. She said I was doing great and to call if I needed help. About a minute later I knew I was at 7 or 8 cm because I wanted drugs bad!!! Like so bad I was ready to kill anyone who tried to stop me. I was whimpering to Brett to get the nurse so we could see what they could do to help. I just wanted something to take the edge off so I could finish. I really did not want to be there! She told me I could have an epidural or something through the IV. I asked what the risks were and she said the iv one could possibly cause breathing problems in the baby. NO WAY! Are you kidding me? Who would take something like that? So I said fine, an epidural, and I want it now because I'm pushing this baby out within the hour. She was really nice and very helpful, but I don't think she believed me. So a few minutes later they have the iv in and this crazy dude with a bandanna and a goatee came in and stuck this needle in my back that looked like it could kill me. That was the worst thing I've ever experienced. I was having contraction after contraction right on top of each other and I was being forced to sit up while shaking so bad I thought he was going to mess up. It was torture and I told them to get done because I needed to push. Up to this point I hadn't even had any relief. I laid down as soon as he was done and said time to push. The dubious nurse checked and said, "Get the doctor!" FINALLY I was getting some relief. I was so relieved to just not have the pain from the contractions any more. I could feel everything except my stomach and back pain which I was perfectly fine with. Dr. Coleman came in and Lily was born! The small dose of anesthesia they were able to get in just numbed right where I could feel contractions so it made my pushing not quite as effective as normal which made Lily my hardest baby to push out. But a few minutes and she was here. Brett just stood there kind of stunned and stared at the baby. Then the nurse said, "Well, are you going to tell her what it is?" and Brett said, "Oh! It's a girl!" 2:41 pm was her official birth time. She weighed 7 pounds, 9 ounces and was 20 inches long, my shortest baby yet. I was very surprised to find out she was a girl, I totally thought it was a boy. She was put on my chest and latched right on and nursed for about 10 minutes. We came home the next morning and now we are leaning to nurse together. Lauren is in love with her little sister and Ethan is slowly getting used to the idea that it's not a boy. Hee, hee. He's started singing to her and taking lots of pictures though, so I think he secretly loves her.Then her daddy is so excited! He's the sweetest daddy ever and is loving his newest baby girl.

~lily~

~Lily~

~Lily~

Lily is here!

It's a girl! Brett told me after he got over the shock. We are so happy she's here and perfect. We were both kind of thinking boy so we were pretty surprised. Brett is so happy because he wanted another girl pretty bad. I'll post my birth story later because I'm about to pass out from sleep deprivation right now, but here are some pictures of my new family of five!