An Early Thanksgiving

SUPER BIG FAT WARNING: LOTS OF PICS!!!

This year we are celebrating Thanksgiving with Josh's side of the family. His mom always does her own on a separate day when it isn't her year so we decided to adopt the same tradition. Thanks Kathy! We had an early Thanksgiving for my side of the family at our house yesterday!

Josh made gingerbread houses from SCRATCH! He made them for 8 straight hours on Saturday. He also baked pies and I think he went to bed around 3 am. Amy and I couldn't keep our eyes open past 12:30 am so we went to sleep! He's such a sweetie! Thanks for all your hard work, honey!

This is Chloee's... and mine. Notice the black bears guarding the house? A pretty good idea, I thought.

How could you not love Josh's face in this one? Well, truth be told, while everyone was decorating at the beginning, Chloee somehow destroyed our house. I don't know how no one saw her doing it but it definitely happened. When I came back to help her, she had ripped the roof off and one of the sides of the house and was eating the icing (eww, gross) and was also eating the gingerbread. There were multiple holes all over it. Josh re-frosted it and we THOUGHT it was going to be salvageable and fine.

I could not keep my shirt clean all day. First, I got grease on it from the green beans I was frying, then frosting, ham, potatoes, you name it, my tummy was pretty much in EVERYTHING! I'm getting so big. Poor Kennet's head is just level with my stomach and I think I knocked him over about 6 times while he was here!

Now you get to see how our house plummeted to its death. Our house was after all, "structurally impaired" by Chloee. Look at the roof especially...

After it all came crashing down! So sad!

I figured that I'd just throw all my frosting on it and hope that it would somehow come all together again. No such luck. Thanks to Amy for all the fabulous pics. Luckily, she had my camera and was taking pics of everyone as our house started to slide and eventually turned into a big blob of crap... or a white trash gingerbread house! You choose!

Here is Amy's. Of course it looks all perfect, complete with her little white, picket fence in the front! I say she took all the creative genes from the family... and her kids even helped her, why doesn't it look like crap. No offense, Kai and Kennet! You know what I mean!

Mom's lovely house. She does look a little drunk in this pic!

Jordan was SUPER creative here. The word "JORDY" written on the roof. Pretty bare house, if you ask me! Oh well, I'll cut him some slack he had to go home that night and work graveyard, so he was sleeping right before he got up to do his... maybe he was still half asleep!

Matt, finishing his up!

The Williams girls, excluding Annie!

I realized I didn't have one pic of my dad in here. Sorry dad but if you'd participate in the cool activities, you'd be in more pictures, maybe that's why he doesn't.

What did we feed my family? How come everyone looks drunk in at least one photo. Chlo giving Uncle Jordan his kisses bye!

Thanks everyone for bringing what you did, it was a blast! I have been eating pie like there is no tomorrow and I'll just binge again on Thursday. Thanks for coming! Love you all!

All Too Aware

It was 10:30 am yesterday and Barney was just coming on KBYU. Good, I thought, I can take a shower while Chloee is in a trance for a solid 30 minutes. I was upstairs in my room with Chloee when all of a sudden her little voice starts repeatedly telling me the same thing over and over again, coming from the bathroom. "Mommy, I fixed it. I fixed it Mom! You not pee your pants no more! I fixed it for you!" What? I had no idea what she was talking about so I waltzed on into the bathroom to see her pointing at the lid on the toilet, which was now UP, as she proceeded to tell me once again, "See Mom, I fix it, you not pee your pants no more!"

How sad that my child has witnessed me not making it to the bathroom many a times. I kind of wanted to laugh and cry all at the same time. Laugh, because that is the cutest and funniest thing I have ever heard. Cry, because who knows what she tells people in nursery. They found out I was pregnant from her..... What else does she tell them? "MY MOMMY PEES HER PANTS ALL DAY!" Oh well, maybe they'll think she's fibbing.

Overall, it was a very thoughtful gesture as weird/funny as it may be!

*Big Girl Bed*

We did it!!! We have been wanting to move Chloee over to a big bed for a while, seeing as how we need the crib here pretty soon for the baby. We didn't want her thinking that the baby was taking away her bed, so we knew there needed to be plenty of time. Yes, my child is 2 1/2 and we are barely doing this! I like the thought of my child being quarantined and not being able to get out of bed to destroy everything in sight!

We were going to do a toddler bed but we decided to just go all the way to a twin instead. We went and bought the bed yesterday and she was SOOOO excited. It was really cute! She looks so tiny in the huge bed but she looked so HUGE in that tiny crib!

After Josh got it all set up last night, she just sat there and read books to her "babies" in it. By the time bed time rolled around, I think she had about 15 books on her bed that she was laying down reading.

Do you think she has enough? I don't even think this is all of them either. We have a great book collection due to grandma Kathy who has been very sweet about giving us all of her kids' books that they don't read anymore. She loves them all! Chloee is definitely one that loves to read. I think she knows about 4 books by heart and she will read (recite, or whatever) them to you word for word on the right pages.

This extremely bright, shiny comforter is so cute. It is reversible, so she can do the silver side too. She loves that it is slippery and silky!

Overall, it went really good. We put a new knob on her door with the lock on the outside. I know that sounds mean but we have to lock her in. KAREN, YOU WERE A HUGE INSPIRATION TO JUST DO IT! We still did the same routine where Josh sits in there and reads books to her while she sits on his lap and then she gets in her bed while he sits there and reads. She took a little longer to go to bed. She got up 3 times in the middle of the night BUT never got off her bed, just cried until Josh went in to see what she was crying about. We are going to switch up how she goes to bed and start leaving the hall light on with her door open and have her fall asleep on her own, in her bed, now that she's a BIG GIRL and all. We'll see how that goes. I'm sure this isn't the end of it, she will start getting off her bed as soon as someone isn't sitting in there with her. Oh well, we have to make this change before this baby gets here!

Now, if only I could get her potty trained...

A/C in November????

It is November 19th today and I had to turn on my air conditioning. Is that INSANE? Around 2 pm my house got up to 78 degrees and I just couldn't bare it any longer. I was trying to take a nap, which only made the heat feel worse so I did it, I TURNED ON MY AC! Awwhhhh.... the relief!

8's Tag

I got this tag off Amy's blog, I'm sure it has come from many a people but the list could go on forever.

8 TV shows I love to watch.....
1. The Office
2. The Biggest Loser
3. Bones - haven't been keeping up on this season.
4. Frasier - love to watch the seasons I own.
5. American Idol
6. King of Queens - we catch it whenever we feel like watching it.
7. Everybody Loves Raymond - we catch it whenever we feel like watching it.
8. CSI: Miami - every once in a while.

8 things that happened yesterday.....
1. I once again, had to watch my daughter have a catheter. It takes 3 of them to hold her down for this. Not such a great day for me, lots of crying!
2. Edited MORE photos. I can't do a lot of them because I get headaches at night, so slowly but surely they are getting done.
3. My child did NOT nap. This was especially needed yesterday, for me... and her, after all her screaming.
4. Actually got to bed early, which hasn't happened in a long time, which was about 10:45 pm. I still need to hit the pillow earlier.
5. Wrote in my journal. Something I've lacked in lately.
6. My daughter told me I needed to take a shower because I stunk!
7. I think I definitely cried more than I ever thought my body was capable of doing.
8. This little girl inside me kicked for 2 hours straight and I thought I was going to puke. I swear she NEVER sleeps. Probably just preparing me for when she gets here!

8 Places I love to eat.....
1. Johnny Carino's
2. Olive Garden
3. Philadelphia Sub Shop
4. Nielsen's Frozen Custard & Sandwiches
5. Wendy's (I've been craving their $1 chicken sandwiches)
6. Chili's
7. Rodizio Grill
8. Old Grist Mill

8 things I look forward to.....
1. March 2009, so I can finally meet this little kicker inside me.
2. Thanksgiving - We are doing one with my family & Josh's, it couldn't get better.
3. Christmas - I think Chloee will be such a hoot this year.
4. Our annual overnight trip to Snowbird, thanks to Josh's work!
5. Being done editing pictures for 2008!
6. Micheal coming home for his R&R. I can't wait to see him but I'm sure it's nothing compared to his wife's excitement.
7. Getting Chloee into her big girl bed (cross fingers) with no major problems.
8. Twilight coming out this Friday, although, I'm going to wait till the crowds die down to see it, plus it's sold out for a few days!

Scripture Specs

When I picked Chloee up from Nursery on Sunday, this is what she was wearing. I couldn't stop laughing. I took this picture this morning, no she didn't wear her pajamas to church! It says: Scripture Specs help me see my way to heaven.

Yes, I know she looks drunk in this picture!

Souvenirs

Every time that Josh goes out of town, he always brings us back a souvenir. I wanted to post this for a while but I forgot about it. When he went to Ohio the last time, which was about 3 weeks ago, he brought back some cool things. He brought me some Astronaut Ice Cream, Neapolitan flavor. I forgot I even had it until I found it today! We decided to try it tonight and it was really good!

This is what it looked like. I don't know why I expected it be in little balls, kind of like dip-n'-dots or something. It tasted just like it, NO JOKE! I was really surprised, I expected it to taste like chalk or something. It starts to melt in your mouth and the flavor is right on!

The chocolate part was the best. Hey, I love chocolate!

Josh always brings Chloee back a book, puzzle or her latest fascination has been, magnets. This time he brought back, "Curious George and the Rocket". She loves the book. He usually finds these things in the Air Force Base gift shop there in Ohio. He is going back again in a couple of weeks and he said he'd bring home some cookies & cream, astronaut ice cream this time. We are anxiously awaiting.

Thanks Daddy for thinking of us while you're away!