Prepare to be GROSSED out.....

Sorry you have to endure these pictures, but just for my sake in documenting this. Here I am at 38 weeks pregnant. I made Nate take a picture of my legs and feet because they are HUGE and I don't even recognize them anymore. Some days are worse than others, but even on the good days, my feet are larger than the very worst day with all three of my other pregnancies.

I have many pairs of shoes that I cannot even fit my feet into with this pregnancy - I have NEVER had that problem before. Hopefully it is ALL swelling and not just that I have gained so much weight my feet and calves are that much larger.

Ethan's 7th Birthday Party

Since we had Ethan's birthday in Idaho with family last year, this was his year to have a friends' birthday party. I let him choose the theme and he wanted a Sports Birthday Party. So, this is what we came up with.

This was his invitation - the front

and the back.
We decorated with a sports theme, so naturally Brutus had to be there to welcome all the guests to the party.

Here are my three buddies "sporting" their attire.








The Chief decorator getting the ball balloons ready.

Here are the finished ball balloons. I thought they were a fun idea and Nate did a great job making them. He thought it was cheesy. Several people have told me that their boys have loved these balloons. We had footballs, baseballs and basketballs.
Lunch ready to be served. We had stadium food of hot dogs, pop, chips, football and basketball jigglers, apples and carrots.
Here is the gang eating and getting ready for some fun.

These are the party favor bags all lined up and ready to be taken home. Just some fun sports stuff inside, stickers, candy, a ball whistle and a REAL baseball signed by the MVP of the day, Ethan.

Nate started off the party with a game of sports charades. The kids had to act out a sport for everyone else to guess.

Nate does such a great job of entertaining the kids and most of these game ideas were his. Here are the kids defending the "castle" they built while the other team tries to shoot it down with their nerf guns.

Then we played dodgeball, all the boys against Nate.

We also had bean bag catch - to see who could rack up the most catches in a row. It's too bad Ethan's birthday is in January, with a sports theme, we could have really had fun outside. I don't think the kids minded at all though, I really think they had a lot of fun.

The kids had had 2 snow days from school the 2 days right before the party, so we had 10 VERY active boys at the party. I think they were all excited to get out of the house and do something fun. Here they are doing the long jump. We got a little crazy with the long jumping. No one got hurt, I promise!!!

Here is Ethan with his cake(s.) I made 2 just in case. I wasn't sure how many kids just one would feed. We ended up only eating part of one cake. It worked out just fine because then we got to use the other cake on his "real" birthday 2 days later.

Blowing out the candles...I wonder what he wished for? I think I have a guess, you'll see later.

If I had to guess what he wished for it would be this right here. He got three webkinz for his birthday and he was in HEAVEN with them!!!!

We played "musical chairs" to open his gifts. We passed a ball around the circle and when the music stopped, the person holding the ball got to give Ethan their present.

Here is Ethan with his gifts from the party. He got lots of FUN stuff, including some money that he is anxiously wanting to buy ANOTHER webkinz with.

Here is a picture of all the kids at Ethan's party.

Collin, Alack, Isaac, Dallas, Chris

Luke, Ethan, Michael, Owen, Jameson

They are a great group of kids and we had a lot of fun with them for the afternoon.

We had all the kids sign their names on a ball when they got to the party. Ethan got to keep that ball as a souvenir from his 7th birthday party.

It was a great fun day!!!! My wonderful mother came up to help us the day of the party. I don't know how we have ever done parties without her before. She was such a HUGE help!!!! It was so amazing to have that one extra set of hands around. She cleaned up from lunch while we played games and then cleaned up the cake and ice cream while we did presents. She really saved me a lot of work.

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Then, when we went to exchange a webkinz, she had the whole house looking better than it did before the party started. It is SO wonderful to live close to my mom and have her be willing and able to help us out and celebrate our special days with us!!!! Thanks mom.

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These are the Thank Yous that we gave to each of the kids. I took their picture when they first got to the party and then Ethan wrote them each a note saying thanks for the gifts. It is also a fun way to have a nice picture of each of the kids that were at the party.

As if Ethan didn't get enough presents from his birthday party, my mom spoiled him with more presents that night, before she left to go back home (one of the benefits of living so close to grandma - a day trip is do-able.)

He LOVES this guitar and now wants to take guitar lessons.
Here is Ethan's wish come true, a huge pile of webkinz. Ok, well 2 of them are Luke's - but their webkinz had a fun get together after the party was over.

My Little Penguins

The kids have this new game that they like to play which involves wearing my and Nate's coats. Usually they just do this inside - they put on our coats and then just play around. They'll "hit" each other with the long sleeves, fall down a lot and just be goofy in HUGE coats.

They decided to see how this game would be outside on the ice covered deck. They even got Linz to join in also (she could wear Ethan's coat as her HUGE coat.)
Then, they decided they wanted to be seals. Here they are begging for their fish. They had so much fun sliding around the ice on the sleeves of their large coats.
It is always fun to see what cute, new games the kids come up with when they let their imaginations run wild. I am so glad they are such good friends and play so well together. Linz gets bored all day hanging out with just me, it is like she is in heaven as soon as the boys get home. (I guess maybe that will change here shortly when she and I have a new baby to take care of during the day.)

Ethan is such a good big brother

I snapped this picture of Ethan today and just wanted to write a little bit about him and how great of a big brother he is.

The boys don't start back to school until Thursday so they have been home a few more days.

Linz has been doing this thing where she'll sleep in her bed for an hour or so and then wake up from her nap. She is cranky and just wants to cuddle and usually falls back asleep if I hold her for a few minutes. Well, since Ethan was home today and he was doing some reading, I had him hold Linz while he read his book. Is this not the sweetest picture?!?!?!?

Ethan really is growing to be a great big brother. He certainly does his fair share of teasing and bothering his siblings, don't get me wrong. But truly he loves them and is SO good about doing (almost) everything I ask him to do. I have tried to start asking Luke and now Linz to do more, but inevitably Ethan is the one I still rely on the most to do things for me. He never complains and is such a good helper for me. (One reason it is sad to have him gone ALL day at school this year.)

Ethan is always good about helping Linz go to the bathroom or get her shoes and coat on. He helps her clean her room and has been really good about playing with her and letting her play with him. I'm so glad he loves his little sister and I hope they are always great friends.

I think I've written about this before, but while I'm on the subject, I should mention it again. Not only is Ethan good to Linz, he has been SO GOOD to Luke this school year. Luke has been doing much better about getting on the bus in the mornings, but everyone once in a while I still have to set him on the bus. Ethan is always right there to sit by Luke (and hold him on the bus while I run off.) There have been numerous times that we have missed the bus and so I have to take the boys to school. Luke usually doesn't want to get out of the car, and Ethan helps Luke get out and literally "prods" Luke all the way up to the school.

I don't know what I would do about Luke without Ethan. He is such a good sport and has been a huge blessing in our family. I hope he doesn't ever resent everything I make him do, but that he will be grateful for the opportunities he's had (by being the oldest) to learn and experience things later in his life.

Fun with Family

It was fun to hang out with my sister and her family. Linz loved being "mom" to Celeste.
And trying to make Celeste pose for pictures with her.

My sister and her family.

My mom and part of the grandkids.

My beautiful family.

We spent one afternoon making a gingerbread house.

We didn't actually get it all put together like a house, we just decorated all the pieces. The kids had fun with that though.

NEW YEAR'S EVE

On New Year's Eve, we took the kids to the Children's Museum. They had fun and got some energy out.

Grandma was so good with the kids. She let them each pick out a game to play and she played each game with the grandkids. This was the game Luke picked out, Chicken Limbo.

Wade picked Mr. Potato Head and he and Linz had fun "creating."

New Year's Even afternoon, we headed down to my house again to celebrate the New Year with my dad and my sister.

Linz and Wade had fun smelling my dad's oils OVER and OVER and OVER again. They were very cute.

We stayed up late eating lots of junk and playing lots of games. I think we all managed to stay up until midnight even (except Nate, I think he took a 10 minute power nap.) We celebrated the new year and headed to bed.

It was a fun night and is always good to be with family.