Baby number 3!!!

Jax and Ella are going to have a new little brother or sister the beginning of June! We are all very excited! Jax says he wants a brother and Ella says she wants a sister...go figure! Mommy and Daddy don't care if it's a boy or girl, just as long as we have a healthy baby...and I wouldn't mind it if this nausea and constant sleepiness would go away, but it's well worth it. Hopefully we will find out what we are having in about 3 weeks!

San Francisco

Last weekend I went to San Francisco with my dad, brother, and sister, we left on saturday morning and came back on monday afternoon, it was just a quick trip, but it was great to spend time with them. The main reason we went was to go to a 49ers game. Last year we went to Seattle to a Seahawks game and we had a blast, Colby didn't come with us last year, but he did this year and i was glad he came so I could spend time with him too. On saturday, after arriving in San Francisco and, after finally finding our hotel, we went on a boat out to Alcatraz and  got a tour of the island and inside the prison. It was really neat and creepy at the same time. The prison had a dark, depressing feeling to it, which you would expect, for part of the tour, you had your own headphones and voices of some of the correctional officers and inmates narrated the tour. So it was kind of like you were on your own little tour, which I thought was really neat. You got to see all the cells, which were tiny, some of them had the cots and some blankets and props in there. We got so see where the solitary confinement was. One of the guards let Dani and i go into the cell and the guard shut the door so we could see what it was like to be in solitary confinement...it was pitch black and after about 10 seconds i started getting claustrophobic and wanted out! I can't imagine being in there 24 hours a day. We saw the cafeteria, warden's office, other cells, the library, where the guards would go to have their breaks and the control room. We saw the outside of the apartments where the guards and their families lived, it was hard to believe that children lived on the island too! I wouldn't want my babies living there, but, apparently they felt safe because of all the guards and the belief that the prison was "inescapable". It was really neat and I hope to be able to go back there some day with Nick.

The 49ers game the next day was a lot of fun, our seats were on the 3rd row on the 50 yard line, so we could see everything up close. Colby and Dani got field passes and got to walk around on the field before the game started, Colby even got to have his picture taken with two of the cheerleaders, which made his day! After the game we did a little souvenir shopping for the kids and had some dinner. The weekend went by fast but we had a lot of fun.

Halloween

My mom had her traditional, fantastic halloween party again this year, and again, we had a blast! Her house was totally decorated, we had yummy food, and the kids had a blast. Jax was 'war machine' from Iron Man 2, Ella was a beautiful ladybug, and Nick dressed up as a deer and I was the hunter...he had a target on his chest (with real bullet holes in it) and I had a fake gun. Colby dressed up as Michael Jackson, he looked so much like him I couldn't believe it, my mom was Captain Jack Sparrow, and Dani was a hot dog and Derek was a bottle of beer. All of the costumes were hilarious, and, yes, dressing up is mandatory at the party. We played a few games, watched a Shrek halloween movie and had yummy cupcakes that Dani had decorated to look like witch hats (i know, im shocked too).

On halloween night, we went back up to my mom's house and took the kids trick-or-treating with my cousin and her kids.

Finger painting!

 A couple of weeks ago (told you I was horrible at blogging!) I let the kids fingerpaint...actually, they started out using brushes and before I knew it, they were just dipping they're fingers in the paint and smearing it on the paper. Since they were having so much fun doing it, and the paint was washable, I decided to let the continue to use fingers...and make a GIANT mess! While they were busy making the 'mess-terpieces' Jax looked at me and said "Mom, you're filling my bucket right now. Do you know what that means? When you are nice to people, you fill their bucket, and when you are mad, you empty their bucket. So since you are letting me and Ella finger paint, and because we are having good behavior, you aren't upset with us, so you are filling my bucket. It makes me feel really happy." I have no idea where he came up with that, but it was so cute! They had a blast finger painting, and when they were done, they were a MESS!! I had them take off their shirts so they didn't get ruined, and they had paint all over their stomach, face, arms, it was even in their hair. When they were done, they thought it was pretty fun to watch the colors go down the drain in the shower. Luckily, they used up all of the paint, so we won't have to worry about that kind of a mess for a while. But, they still manage to make plenty of other messes!

Catching up

I am so horrible at remembering to blog lately! So, I will just have to to a catch-up post about a few of the things that the kids have done since I last blogged...which was two months ago!

Jax started 1st grade at the end of August, and he likes it more than he wants to admit. He is a little worrier and he thinks he has to be nervous before school EVERY morning, but, when I pick him up after school, he always says that he had a fun day. He had a hard time adjusting to being there all day, and his favorite subjects are recess and lunch :) He loves his teacher and he is making a lot of new friends. Hopefully we can get to the point where he isn't nervous and upset every morning. He very rarely complains when it's time to do homework, which is a huge improvement from last year, but then again, he is a big 1st grader now!

A few days before school started, Jax earned his yellow belt in karate! He worked very hard and practiced all of his techniques. He was so proud of himself for getting the yellow belt, and we were very proud of him for working so hard to get it! I absolutely love the karate school and his teacher is so great with all of them, and Jax loves it. They focus on respect and discipline as well as the techniques.

Little miss Ella is still her sassy, princess self! She isn't quite sure how she feels about big brother being at school all day, and her just being home with Mommy. She gets pretty bored while he is gone. She loves it when Gabe is here so she has someone to play with! Hopefully I can find a preschool for her that I actually like, and maybe she will be able to start in January, since she is offically "potty twained like a big gull" (translation: potty trained like a big girl!) although im really not excited to have both of my babies in school, even if Ella will only be there for a few hours! She loves to do "homework" when her big brother does it. She mostly just draws pictures, but sometimes I have her do things out of a preschool work book, and she loves it. She is getting really good at saying her ABC's and counting to 10, even if she does like to skip numbers 5 and 6.

I can't believe how fast time goes, and how big our kids are getting. They are both growing up so fast and we couldn't be more proud of them!