New Baby

So as most of you already know, I am pregnant again and expecting our 4th baby the end of February... My official due date is Feb 22 (2/22/10 sounds good... I don't think I would have too much trouble remembering that date!) I went in for my ultrasound on October 13th and found out we are having a little girl... we are all very excited, especially Mikayla. Her first response to us telling her we were having another baby was "we don't need any more babies in this house!" (I didn't really disagree! but it was a little late for that!!!) However, as soon as she heard she was having a baby sister, she has been thrilled! I think it's something to do with making the "teams" even, with three boys and three girls in the family!! Personally, I am thrilled to be having a girl... after 7 years, I am getting another girl and I can't wait to go out and shop for pretty, frilly, pink things... all I ever get to buy right now is jeans and t-shirts... I don't think this little girl is going to stand a chance... she is going to have earrings and frills and bows and cute hair do's whether she wants them or not!! Also, after 7 years I am making the argument that all Kaylas old stuff is sadly out of style and I am going to need to buy lots of new stuff! (ha ha! we'll see!!) We also have been having lots of fun debating names and trying to find one that everyone can agree on. Bri and I have always liked the name Kenzie, but it is so close to Kayla that I think I would go insane... (I always wonder what I was thinking naming Jaden and Jaxson, and here I go again!!) but I made the mistake of telling the kids about liking the name Kenzie, so now they won't hear of any other names... Whenever Kayla writes anything about our family or draws a picture of us, she adds a baby and writes Baby Kenzie... so who knows, we may be stuck with it!!

Halloween 2009

So we had a great Halloween this year... Mikayla was a Pixie (she said she was a Princess with wings, and that was OK with me... at least she wore the costume!!) On Friday the 30th, I took her to school and quickly realized that they do things differently at our new school than we did last year at Vineyard... She was the only one without her costume on! So I ran her back home and got her dress on and took her back to school, not really expecting the day to go very well... You have to understand, Mikayla is a tom boy, who only wears jeans and t-shirts. But every year when Halloween rolls around, she INSISTS on being some kind of princess with a big floaty dress!! So the whole way back to school she was fighting with her dress and saying how dumb she looked and how she was "NOT wearing this stupid dress all day"... but low and behold when the boys and I got to her school later that afternoon for the school parade, she was smiling and happy and twirling around in her dress (minus her wings, she said she took them off and shoved them in her desk cause they were driving her crazy!!)... After the kids got to show off their costumes in the parade, they all had their Halloween class parties... we stopped in for a few minutes to take some pictures and say Hi to all the other kids... This is a picture of Kaylas class, naturally she wouldn't sit down WITH the class, so this was the best we could get... with her front and center!! Above is a picture of Mikayla and her best friend Olivia at the party... they are very cute together, constantly hugging and giggling together. It's great to see Kayla so happy with her new friends!!!

Jaden got to be Bumblebee the Transformer this year!! He was very excited, and insisted on wearing his costume ALL DAY on Friday... Jaden also got to have a Halloween party on Friday with his class. Jax and I haunted his preschool all day and got video and some pictures of the fun... At one point Jaden started giving me "that look"... you know, the one you give your mom when she is embarrassing you with taking a million pictures and you just want her to go away?? I didn't think I would see that look 'til he was a teenager, but I got it when he was 4... must mean I am supremely annoying!! He even wore his costume to Kaylas school to watch the big kids parade... We saw tons of really cool costumes, among Jadens favorites were Joker, lots of Transformers, and all the big kids cause they were SO SCARY!! One boy passed and said "YOU ROCK, BUMBLEBEE!" to Jaden... He was thrilled! Later that night we went to the Trunk or Treat at our church building, and it was the BIGGEST Trunk or Treat I have EVER seen!!! They had decided to combine 3 wards and have one big bash... it took us well over an hour to get through all the cars, and we got so much candy, that all the pumpkins (trick or treat buckets) were bulging so bad that I thought they might break!!!

Little Jax got to be Spiderman this year... he was so obstinate about costumes though... I took him to Wal-Mart with me to pick one out and of course I couldn't decide which one to get him, so I showed him each costume and asked him. He just would frown at each one and say "NO!" So in the end I ended up just making him wear a Spiderman costume... I figured at least it would make Jaden happy!! The night of the Trunk or Treat, I kind of had a hard time getting him dressed, and only just managed it by telling him we were going to get lots of candy... after that he was much more excited, and walked around saying candy, candy! Too bad we didn't get him to say trick or treat before we left... maybe next year!! Also, I think it helped a lot that Jaden was so excited to see him dressed as Spiderman! He kept telling Jax how cool he looked... So off we went to the Stake Center... He was so cute, he just marched up to each car and started digging through their candy bowls 'til he found the piece of candy he wanted and would come and bring it to me or Brian. It was SO COLD that night... only a few days after the big snow storm, so we were all bundled up in coats and still freezing by the time we got all the way through zig-zagging through the huge maze of parked cars!!

All in all a great Halloween, I taught the kids lots of Halloween songs that I remembered from Elementary School, and Jaden even taught me a new one he learned in preschool this year... and we ended up with a huge load of candy to eat by the time we were done!!