Our House....

So as many people know, I am pregnant. It was a big surprise, but a happy one. We actually find out tomorrow what we are having. With an unexpected pregnancy, me not having any work since early January and Chris being in the lumber business we have been experiencing some tough times. Adding a new baby also means paying for extra health insurance and a bigger vehicle. Since all of these things have been going on we decided it was in our best interest to put our house on the market--our good "pal "Dave Ramsey helped us make this decision too ;) Of course with pregnancy comes crazy hormones, so on the very day that our house officially went on the market I had a slight fit of hysteria at 11:00 at night wondering if we were making a mistake. I had felt at peace with our decision and it seemed completely logical but my feelings started making me wonder if we were making a mistake. So after some prayer and conversation we decided we will still keep our house on the market and sit back and see what God has in store for us. We only have 3 months or so to sell the house because once we reach that point my stomach will be huge and I won't be moving around very well...meaning that keeping the house "show" ready will be hard. Anyway, we don't know what lies ahead, but it will be interesting to see what happens. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

Red Box

This is late notice, but today you can rent a free DVD from any Red Box by using the code F3T9L6. You still have to run your debit/credit card information, but if you have it back by 9:00 tomorrow night it is free.

ANSER Charter School

Well, after a lot of stress and praying Sophia got into ANSER Charter School. She drew 12th in the lottery out of 122 kindergartners. Up until this year there has only been one kindergarten class. This year they are opening a second kindergarten class which made her chances of getting in much greater. There will be 2 classes of 15 students (previously it was one class of 18). They are moving from the Bronco Elite building to the Foundations Christian Academy building in Garden City this year too. This particular charter school has a good reputation and is well established compared to others in the area (it was founded in 1999). We love the smaller class sizes too. Also, to fill you in, ANSER is Latin for goose. Their pamphlet explains : "Geese rotate postitions while flying to increase endurance and honk encouragement. This represents ANSER's supportive and collaborative community."

A few good deals....

Last week I went to Target and their whole Christmas section was 90% off! I got a 3' silver, tinsel Christmas tree in a silver pot for $1.99. Over the Christmas season, I was loving the tinsel trees. This one will go great with my new collection---before Christmas I bought a mini silver tinsel tree and also a red one. I also scored a funky, silver wreath for $2.49.

Something else for you Boise girls. There is a Joann's Fabrics superstore opening next to Cost Plus in March so they are closing down the store on Fairview and Five Mile (maybe others too, but I'm not sure). They are having some great sales. One great deal I got was an $11.99 Simplicity pattern for $1.99. I took Matthew with me so we didn't last long in there. I am going to try and go back next week.

Halloween

The kids had a lot of fun this year--especially Sophia. She was very gung-ho with the whole Trick-or-Treating thing. We did one big loop around our neighborhood with our neighbors who have twins. The kids got a lot of candy which I'm not sure what we are going to do with. Sophia really wanted Chris and I to dress up so at the last minute I put pig tails in my hair and threw on a baseball hat. Sophia took one look at me and said, "Mom, I like your hair, but you need to go put a dress on." And to her dismay, I didn't put on a dress, I stayed in my jeans and sweatshirt. She's all about the dresses :)

Since having kids, I wasn't sure what I thought about Trick-or-Treating, but have decided it is a great way to meet neighbors and strike up some good conversation. Here are some pictures of the kids.

Matthew on the run (okay, not the best picture, but you try and photograph a 17 month old in a tiger costume!)

Pretty Fairy Princess...

And after many failed attempts of a perfect portrait of the two of them together, this is what we got!

It's time to party!

Today was Sophia's Halloween party at school----here are some highlights...

The Frankenstein heads Sophia and I made for her party.
Sophia and a few of her classmates.

Sttttrrrrike!

Fishing for goodie bags.

Decorating her mini pumpkin.

The finished product!

Sophia's First Field Trip

Sophia had her first field trip last week. She went to Linder Farms with her class (Matthew and I joined her too). We had a lot of fun! Here are a few pictures....

Sophia surveying the pumpkin patch.

Hey! This looks like a good one!

Matthew enjoyed looking at all of the pumpkins too...

Sophia and Teacher Karen...

Matthew has a good dialing finger!

I am taking a sewing class on Monday nights for the next 6 weeks so Chris was home last night by himself with the kids. I was only gone for 3 hours but there was quite the drama in a short period of time. As soon as I walked in the door he told me that something happened that he had never before seen in his life happen that evening. He told me that the incident involved Matthew. I was assuming there was blood involved and maybe a slight head injury or something because I always assume the worse. Thankfully that was not the case. Chris was busy doing something and Matthew was playing with the cordless phone. Matthew was busy pushing the buttons on the phone and called 911. Can you believe that? What are the odds? Seriously....So, Chris heard the dispatcher say "911, what is your emergency?" He grabbed the phone, but Matthew had already hung it up. Immediatley after that our phone rang and it was the dispatcher asking what our emergency was. Chris had to explain that Matthew was playing with the phone and accidentally dialed 911. She then hastily said she would cancel the dispatch. Pretty crazy---you hear of that happening, but I've never personally known that to happen to anyone that I know. Now thanks to our son we can say that kids accidentally calling 911 really does happen. I can't wait to tell him that story when he gets older...

Remember when....

Remember when you were in labor and how it all went down?

How long were your labors?
Sophia - 11 hours
Matthew - about 4 1/2 hours

How did you know you were in labor?
Sophia - I started having contractions at home while waiting for Chris and my mom to pick up my sandwich for me at Subway.
Matthew - I was induced.

Where did you deliver?
Sophia - St. Luke's (downtown)
Matthew - St. Luke's (downtown)

Drugs?
Sophia - had an epidural as soon as I could!
Matthew - waited as long as I could, and finally caved~had him a 1/2 hour later after the epidural was administered (at least it took the edge off!)

C-Section?
Nope (on both).

Who delivered?
Sophia - Dr. Carlson
Matthew - same

I got this from another blog and was told to pass this on---! So go for it! I want some details (nothing too gory though please) :)

St. Luke's Women's Fitness Celebration

We almost didn't walk this year, but at the last minute I changed my mind and decided we would do it again! This was Sophia's 3rd year participating...and my 7th? I think (???) It was raining horribly on Saturday morning (not to mention there was thunder and lightening), but we went for it. We met Emily downtown at the race. It is the nation's largest 5k walk/run for women. Surprisingly Sophia did really well. I didn't even bring the jogger stroller! She walked most of the way (with a little help from Emily and myself carrying her off and on). Sophia was a real trooper. We were soaked at the end---seriously, literally soaked! I had my camera in my backpack in a plastic baggie but it still got wet and now doesn't work....so there are no pictures to post. Note to self: take camera in to be fixed. Next year should even be better since Sophia will be 5 years old. I am glad we ended up doing it again this year---it has been fun to start a mother/daughter tradition with her at an early age :)

I did it!

Well for those of you wondering---I survived my zip line adventure. Being up in a tree on a platform is not my choice of places to be, but by the 5th line I was doing good and finally enjoying myself (unfortunately there are only 6 lines---technically 7, but 6 & 7 run parallel to one another so you can race with a friend). Anyway, there was no screaming on my part like I thought there would be. I did however close my eyes a lot at the beginning and missed the great view of the trees, but made up for that on the last two. I don't have any pictures now, but here is the website from the tour that I did www.zipidaho.com

Sophia's First Day of School

Yesterday was Sophia's first day of school. Her teacher's name is Miss Karen and she really likes her. Yesterday was a short day where they went over rules, ate a snack, played on the playground and did a Weekly Reader (remember those?). Tomorrow she will be there for the full 3 hours. Here are a few pictures I took before the big school day....

TV's and the environment....

Some interesting information I found online....

Plasma tv's use as much energy as your refrigerator! That's about $78 a year based on how much tv an average family watches. Old school tv's (like we have) cost only $11 per year.

BUT, like my friends and I were talking about the other day it would be nice to have one when the kids are teenagers so that they will want to hang out at home (along with their friends) and not at someone elses house :) Just something to think about!

Belated Blog Entry #2: The Oregon Coast

Here is the other belated blog entry I had promised in my last entry. This one will cover our family vacation to the Oregon Coast (specifically Portland and the Enchanted Forest). We went the last week in July. We actually left the morning following Sophia's birthday party so things were a little hectic--getting packed, etc., but we made it :) The first night we stayed the night in Portland. It was an interesting night because we had both kids in the room with us which was a first. Matthew screamed his head off for about 45 minutes straight before he went to sleep---thankfully Chris was in the hotel lobby with my dad (Bert or a.k.a. Poppy) working on their Whatifsports thingamabob that they do together. He gets a little edgier than I do with screaming kids---I'm used to it being at home with them all day long. Anyway, Matthew finally went to sleep.

The next day my mom (Lynn or a.k.a. Glynnie), the kids and I went to the mall and hung out the entire day while the boys (minus Matthew--he was with us) went to the Oregon Brewers Festival. The mall we went to has an ice skating rink so that was a big draw for Sophia and kept her occupied while my mom let me go wander off and do a little shopping for myself. I love the store Forever 21---we don't have it here in Boise but are getting one soon. It's cheap like Old Navy, but their clothes are trendier (my opinion). So, I got a few things there and was able to try on clothes in the dressing room without 4 little eyes staring at me and a toddler complaining she is ready to go---it was a nice treat. We all went out to dinner at Claim Jumper's which was pretty cool---I've always wanted to go there. The food was pretty good---what was impressive was the 6-layer Chocolate Motherlode Cake. We got one slice to go for $9.95 and couldn't finish the slice between the 4 of us.

The next day we went to the Enchanted Forest (http://www.enchantedforest.com/). It is a small amusement park in Salem, Oregon that I have gone to numerous times as a little girl. I have very fond memories of it and it was fun to share it with the kids (this is the 2nd year in a row for both of the kids that they have gone). Sophia was more into it this year and was braver than last year. She even rode on the Ice Moutain Bobsleds. The ride that really freaked me out was the Frog Hopper. It was a kiddie ride (they have a whole kiddie section with a little train, etc), but that thing was scary! Sophia was fine of course. I didn't know if I should laugh or cry---I decided to laugh until I was crying instead. Here is an action shot of the two of us on it together.

Some other pics from the Enchanted Forest...

There is more to our trip---Seaside, etc. but I'm going to post this anyway for the time being since it obviously takes me awhile to post...

Belated Blog Entry #1: Sophia's Birthday

Sophia's 4th birthday was last Thursday and we had her birthday party on Friday. Then on Saturday we woke up early and headed to the Oregon Coast for a week...thus the belated blog entry! Belated Blog Entry #2 will be about our vacation to the Coast (stay tuned).

Even though we were having a birthday party for Sophia on Friday, it didn't seem right to let her "real" birthday go by without a little bit of a celebration. For her "real" birthday we surprised her with a 1/2 day at Princess Camp! She had a great time. Her dance teacher from this last year was holding the camp and it just happened to be on her special day---we couldn't resist.Sophia with her Princess crown she made that day.

Later that night Glynnie took us to dinner at Red Robin to celebrate her big day. The wait staff came out and sang Happy Birthday to her which she liked and she enjoyed a clownie cone from Baskin Robbins for dessert.

Her birthday party was the following night. She had a great time playing with all of her friends.

Honk Honk!

One of Matthew's latest tricks is "honking" our noses. If you ask him, "Where's Mama's nose?" He will then proceed to squeeze your nose. You can tell he is proud of himself and thinks this is a big accomplishment (see picture on right). Some of his other current "tricks" if you will, are pulling the cereal boxes out of the cupboard and dumping cereal all over, giving hi-fives, and helping me empty the dishwasher. There are many others but these are just a few.

Dirt Dawgs

The Dirt Dawgs placed 4th in the Boise city men's upper division end of season tournament. There are 14 divisions in Boise ranging from D-1 to D-14 and Chris' team was in D-3. The link to the team's website is www.leaguelineup.com/welcome.asp?url=dirtdawgs2007

They start the fall season the first of August. Good job Dirt Dawgs!

Matthew's 1 year pictures

Matthew recently had his pictures taken by my friend Nikki. He is at a great age to have his pictures taken because his smile is genuine (unlike his sister who knows the fake smile all too well). Here are a couple of the pictures and the link to Nikki's website (http://www.nikkihoover.net/).

Busy Month

We have had a very busy month! Matthew turned one year old last Sunday. We had a party for him at Uncle Ron and Aunt Julee's house in Lewiston. When Sophia turned one, she barely touched her cake...but Matthew on the other hand was a different story. He tore the cake apart! He also enjoyed everyone singing Happy Birthday to him and getting to play with his new toys.Sophia started swimming lessons last week. She cried the first two days and by day 3 her fear of the water had drastically decreased. She is doing a great job and we are very proud of her!

She also was in her first dance recital on Saturday night. She loved her outfit and felt like a princess!

Baby Backpack

As my friend Emily knows, even before I ever thought of having kids I have always wanted a baby backpack. We bought an REI Piggyback backpack today off of Craigslist and couldn't wait to use it so we took it on a stroll around the neighborhood and through the park....Matthew enjoyed sitting in it and seemed comfortable having Daddy tote him around.