MICHIGAN

This last weekend we went back to our Michigan home.  It was a blast! I never thought I would really miss Michigan but I did.  It was so good to see so many friends who we could get together with.  And even thought BYU had a very upsetting game while we were there, it was still a great trip.

 My friend Amanda is having a little boy the end of October after 3 girls.  So we had to celebrate while we were there.  We did a little baby shower for her at Papa Vino's and were able to have a girls night out with everyone.

 Saturday morning we went to the mall and then ate at Pei Wei which I have been craving for a few months.  Then we had everyone who could meet at Erwin Apple Orchards to eat the best doughnuts ever, drink yummy apple cider, play and to pick apples.  We loved that a lot of our friends were able to join us.  We were there for the rest of the afternoon.

 Logan and David Williams

 Our group filled most of the heads on this.  There are a few randoms that decided to get in as well.

 These 2 sweet girls were finally reunited and didn't skip a beat playing together.

 Our family can never seem to get a picture together where everyone is looking, but hey we try.

 Picking apples in her reach, off the ground.  We didn't keep those ones:)

When picking apples, you buy a bag to fill, but you can also eat as you go and stuff your pockets.  We were stuffed with apples, doughnuts, and cider and everyone was very happy until we watched BYU play Utah that night, not a pretty sight. 

We loved being able to go to Michigan and spending time with some fabulous people.

Our Princess and her Loves

Olivia has a new found love/obsession, princesses.  These princesses go with her just about everywhere.  She talks with them, dances with them, sleeps with them, holds their hands and goes for walks and just plain LOVES them.

 She LOVES dancing, her dancing consists of spinning in circles and she loves to dance with mommy and daddy or princesses.  I never thought spinning in circles would make me sick but it does now, that's what happens as you get older:)

 A group of mom's at church put together a little play school once a week.  Olivia LOVES it.  She packs her back pack with a book and a snack and can't wait to go. 

 She LOVES her babies, and stuffed animals and will sit and play with them for quite awhile.  It's so much fun seeing her use her imagination.
I went and had her hair cut because she completely refuses to have her hair done.  If I could get a pony tail in or pig tails they were immediately ripped out as soon as she got away.  I wanted just a little trim but the lady chopped it! Good thing she's cute no matter what and hair grows back.

 Even with all of her SWEETNESS there's still a little SASS that shines through.  She can stand up for herself pretty well with her big brothers, but will come and say, "Gogan bein mean!" or "Porter bein mean!" 

She LOVES the movie Tangled.  She sings the song, "Mother knows best!" And if you sing it wrong she will correct you. 

She LOVES to wake up at about 3 am and come and lay across my stomach and fall back asleep. 

She LOVES the idea of baby brother, we'll see if there's still as much love when he actually enters the world. She is always talking about him and hugging my belly, she's very sweet.

Baby #4

Today we had the ultrasound to see baby.  The only time that worked with Brandon's schedule and the office was in the afternoon so we made it a family event to go see.  We were quite the spectacle coming into the doctor's office with all of our kids.  The boys started fighting over Brandon's phone while Olivia danced around.  Nothing out of the ordinary:)  We went into the ultrasound and the boys were mesmerized with seeing the baby, while Olivia spun the chair around.  Everything looked great as far as we could see and we found out the little baby will be a BOY! We are very excited.
To be honest I was a little shocked.  I thought for sure it was going to be a girl. I'm not disappointed just hate being wrong.  Now the fun of figuring out a boy name:)

Some things to write about

How many straws does it take to drink root beer?

Porter playing soccer.

Porter rock climbing.

Logan rock climbing.

I often throughout the day think to myself, "this is so funny I need to write it down." or "I'm so proud of this I need to write it down." While I'm actually here at my computer and blogging I'm going to write down what I can, with my pregnancy brain, remember.

Logan has found his niche here in Ohio. He still claims to be a Utah boy and wants to go live with grandma and papa, but he's doing okay now. Since school has started our neighborhood has doubled in kids. I don't know where they came from or that they even existed until the school bus came down our street. But there are quite a few that are his age and he's making friends with them. They jump on the trampoline most of the time and play tag, and catch (yes my son likes baseball finally!), and whatever else 2nd graders can come up with. He's also the little kid protector. We've had a boy who is Logan's age come over a few times and he's not the nicest kid and he throws a lot of "THAT'S NOT FAIR!" fits. So I told Logan when he start's being mean and kicking kids off the trampoline to tell him he needs to be nice if he wants to play here. I told him that if he didn't listen to come and tell me. I really didn't think Logan would do this, because it's easier to follow than to stand up. But you better believe Logan took the challenge and we've seen some changes. The boy usually calms down, or just goes home and everyone else keeps playing. It's amazing to see confidence growing in your child. He's playing soccer again this year and is doing amazing. He loves playing and he's really good at defense. It's been fun to see him change from playing in the goalie net and picking grass to getting in there and running hard, and going after the ball.

Porter is still Porter, extremely friendly and funny. Tonight we had the missionaries over for dinner and he said to one of them, "your name is bow-chica-bow-wow!" He's loving school except for the fact that it seems so long. I love to see him get on the bus and smile and wave out the window to me. I'll never get sick of that! He and Logan are on the same soccer team and he's amazing at offense. He runs harder and faster than most kids and is smaller than all of them. He's extremely competitive during the games but tells everyone good job when the game is over.

He asks me every day if I know what I'm having yet even though I told him the day before that it would be in a few weeks. He's very excited for the baby and wants a little brother.Every day he comes home from school Olivia is waiting for him and he always comes and gives her a big hug. She loves it when they come home from school. She senses the time too because she always says, "go outside, wait for boys?!" I love that my kids love each other.

Olivia has turned somewhat into a little monster. She's rough and tumble with they boys and wants to look like a princess while she's at it. She watches Tangled most days and wears a princess dress most of the time. She loves to brush hair, which I love. But she no longer will let me do her hair. If I pull it up or do anything to it she pulls it out. She's become very picky and doesn't like to eat meals, she likes snacks. She is very bull headed and will fight me on just about everything until I tell her she's going to go to timeout. She'll then say, "okay FINE!" and lay down and have her diaper changed. She loves to "bounce" on the trampoline and play with our neighbor girl Bella. If we try to get her to do anything she doesn't want to she'll cry and say, "no, I no wan nu!" (no, I don't want to!) And if she's crying a hug will solve it. If Brandon yells at her she gets a shocked look on her face, covers her mouth and laughs. Then says, "daddy funny!?" It's hilarious!

These are some things that have been on my mind lately and I'm glad I remembered a lot of it to write down.