The Big News

I had my ultrasound back in early December to find out whether we were having a boy or a girl. I had told Sareny that we would be holding balloons at the bus stop so she could know what we were going to have--pink balloons for a girl, and blue balloons for a boy. Unfortunately, the gender of the baby was inconclusive due to the baby being breach and crossing its legs, so there was no big news to announce at the bus stop. However, I had promised we would be holding balloons and I didn't want her to think we had forgotten, so we got yellow balloons. She was a little confused since she had expecting either pink or blue and asked, "What does yellow mean?"

It was a bit disappointing for everyone to still be in suspense. Although honestly, I think it bothered other people more than it bothered me. After my miscarriages and years of trying to get a baby, I actually was just so thrilled that the ultrasound showed a healthy, growing baby that I didn't have room inside for disappointment. We made plans to have a 3-D ultrasound at a place that does them for free once I reached 26 weeks. We just had that appointment two days ago, and all I can say is that modern science is pretty amazing. I kind of expected to see smashed alien-baby pictures, and was surprised when I got this instead:

That looks so much like my other babies, it is amazing! So the big news around here is that we will be having another girl! Everyone was pretty excited except for poor Isaac, who has been praying for a boy. I felt pretty sad for him. Again, I personally would have been happy either way, but I know he really wanted a brother so I was kind of hoping for his sake...At least this way he gets to hold on to his title as my favorite boy. :) And a parting shot of the kids, because I thought both pictures were cute.

Sareny's Class Field Trip

Sareny's class had a field trip to a dairy at the beginning of December, and I got selected as one of the chaperones. She was excited to have me along, and I was glad that the smell of cows didn't make me sick, since I was (and still am, of course) pregnant. Above is a picture of her class, with her teacher Ms. Lizarraga. Then the kids enjoyed playing around in the hay and jumping off.

The kids sampled some flavored milk, which Sareny of course did not like. Then they went on a hayride tour of the dairy. Here she is sitting by Aimee and KcKenna.

Looking at the cows eating.

Then they petted and fed some of the animals.

The sheep licked her hand, and she wasn't sure about that.

A donkey nibbling a carrot off of Sareny's hand.

You can kind of tell from these pictures, but it was a cold day at the farm!

After some sack lunches, everybody got some ice cream. This was the group of kids I was in charge of--there was supposed to be one little girl in our group, but she was absent that day. Really, other than lunchtime, the kids just hung out with whoever they wanted.

Sareny with her friend Renee from church.

Back on the bus with her friend McKenna.

I thought we were headed back to the school an hour early, and that was fine by me. But nope! The bus made a surprise stop at a park for the kids to run around. It was actually a pretty big park and was able to accomodate the whole second grade pretty well. I felt kind of bad for the few kids who were there playing when we got there.

I took a long turn on tire swing duty, timing the kids' turns and pushing them.

Sareny climbed up this structure.

And then we finally really did head back to the school. I was glad I got to go along on her class trip!

Thanksgiving at Grammy's

We went to Grammy Jo's house for Thanksgiving this year, and had a great time. The kids had their own table, which Lexi and Megan and Ashley Noto also had to sit at.

We used the pomoegranite plates and had some delicious fried turkey and ham. (though the ham was not fried.) Apparently a large percentage of people (I'm thinking it was 80%) photograph their Thanksgiving feast, and we were not among them. Afterwards, the girls took the kids outside to play on scooters and bikes. Lexi and Sareny had to pose, of course.

Cute cousins! Fin and Chuckles look so cute together.

And I love this one too.

They had lots of fun.

The boys.

Lexi and Ashley. Megan was the photographer, so she isn't in any of the pictures.

While we were there, Sareny asked Grammy Jo if she could do lite-brite.

She had fun desiging her own picture.

Soon the other kids caught wind of a fun project, and gathered around for their turn.

The kids also had lots of fun playing Lincoln Logs.

Charlie threw a fit over something, I think it may have had to do with Finley. Maybe because it wasn't my own kid throwing the fit, I thought it was pretty cute.

It was pretty dramatic.

Friday evening, Bampa set up an outside movie on a big screen and we watched Elf. We bundled up as much as we could, but I was still freezing! Very strangely, my mom was apparently not cold. The next morning, we did gingerbread houses before Jake and Liz headed back up to Utah. Everybody had some pretty cute and creative little houses.

The Keel family with their creations. I especially liked Liz and Josh's ladder with Santa on it.

The rest of us, sans me the photographer.

The kids with the houses.

At some point on Saturday, I looked in the front room and saw all three kids clambering and playing on their Bampa. Pretty typical. I was glad I got this candid shot before everyone looked up at me. 

He even puts up with Isaac pinching his nose and will still smile for the camera.

Saturday evening we helped Grammy Jo get her Christmas tree decorated. Finley clustered a lot of hers in this spot with the ladder.

Lexi hanging up her favorites.

The little ladder was pretty handy.

Finley gets pretty excited about Christmas ornaments and liked this Canadian Mounty.

And this is the only picture I got of Isaac hanging ornaments, because lets face it, he loses interest in non-electronics pretty quickly and moves on.

And to conclude our holiday festivities, me, Lexi, and my mom went to a late show. Yes, we saw Breaking Dawn in the Pioneer Theater in downtown Overton. And they were both quite embarrassed that I asked a random stranger to take our picture. But hey, things like this have to be documented.

I realized about halfway through the movie based on the giggles and comments from Lexi and my mom and that none of us are die hard Twilight fans. I wanted to go because I like going to movies and will see most anything, but afterwards I was like, "so why did we go see that if none of us are even remotely into Twilight?" Apparently, my sis-in-law Liz is, and she was the one who had come up with the idea of the girls seeing it, but we weren't able to squeeze it in before she left. So instead, the non-fans went. Interesting. All in all, we had a great time at Grammy and Bampa's.

Soccer

Sareny and Isaac played soccer this year, and they both loved it and had a great time. Sareny's team was the Dragons and she wore number 3. She had an awesome coach and was lucky enough to be friends with most of the kids on her team before the season even started. She was one of five girls on the team, which I think made it fun for her. She did great and can't wait to play again next year. Unfortunately, the camera never made it to one of her games. Sad. But I did take some at one of Isaac's games.

Isaac's team was the Coyotes, and he wore number 9. He had the best, most patient coach ever, and we hope to get him again next year. For most of the season, Isaac didn't love soccer quite as much as Sareny did, but by the end, he had gotten more in to it and did great.

He got to do a kickoff.

A picture of the whole team. Isaac is sitting by his friendCharlie from church, and Revan that we met at the park is on the other side of Charlie. Revan's dad is Coach Pete, and I can't remember the other coach's name.

At Isaac's last game, there weren't any subs and I was pretty worried how he would do, since he was always the first kid asking for a sub, and if he was tired, he would just kind of stand there and do nothing. We had talked it up pretty big, and I was shocked that he stepped up and never once said he was tired. He even scored two goals! It gave me some hope for next year. 

After the game where I had my camera, I tried to get some pictures of Isaac and Sareny, but they were being pretty silly.

But still pretty cute.

At least they had a lot of fun...

We can't wait for next year, where Finley and Isaac will be on the same team. That should be fun!