No, I am not 16.

Yes, this picture was taken at 2:30am after seeing New Moon.
Yes, I went with these three Laurels AND about 30 of my friends.
Yes, we made T-shirts in line while we waited for two hours to get a good seat.
Yes, I am pregnant and need sleep.
Yes, it took me two days to recover.
No, This is not my favorite movie/book.
No, I do not endorse the Twilight books to the YW.
Yes, I am the best YW president ever.
Yes, the movie was cheesy and therefore hilarious.
Yes, Stephenie Meyer is Ben's first cousin.
Yes, she was on Oprah and is a gazillionaire.
No, she has not given us any money.
No, she won't speak at your fireside.


Will I go see the midnight showing of Eclipse?

Still undecided.

"What are you having?"

I was at Costco yesterday and a woman behind me in line asked me, completely out of the blue, "What are you having?"
Caught off guard, since I thought I wasn't yet showing, and a how-on-earth-did-she-know blank stare on my face, I replied, "I, uh, don't know."
Stranger Lady: "Oh. You're not finding out? It seems like everyone finds out these days."
Me: "Yes, I'm finding out. In another 5-6 weeks since I"M ONLY 14 WEEKS PREGNANT!"
(I did not shout out that last phrase, but I wanted to.)

So this could mean any of the following:

a) I've had one too many McDonald's plain hamburgers/Wendy's baked potatoes/KFC mashed potatoes and gravy/Taco Bell bean burritos, all my current stand-by lunch option.
b) I'm actually having twins, maybe triplets
c) fourth pregnancies are just that bad
d) some people are extremely rude and have not had the unspoken rule
"Don't assume anyone is pregnant and don't say anything to that effect" explained to them.

What do you think?

Happy Halloween 2009

From:
Purple Fairy
Ron Weasley
Gryffindor Seeker
and Amazing Race Married Couple

The big old recap

Has it really been 7 months since I blogged? Well I feel like I have to catch you up on our happenings in order to get into blogging again. I'll try to make it quick and painless.

April - 30 days hath September, April, June and November...
Out of those thirty days in April, we had 23 days of visitors -we tried to pretend we weren't on vacation, but had our fill of Disneyland, the beach, Yogurtland and In-n-Out burgers while trying to squeeze in our regular activities, like baseball, not to mention planting a garden (thanks for the help, Ben and Nettie!), celebrating Easter, getting pulled over by a cop on a youth activity, and keeping Kate out of the make-up bags of house guests.




















May - It's mah birthday, it's mah birthday...
I finally got the camera of my dreams after saving up some pennies and foregoing gifts for, like, the last four years. Thanks for your prudent budgeting, hon.
The Nikon D60 has been nothing but fun. I knew I liked taking pictures, but I didn't realize how much. I also didn't know that pictures could actually turn out how I pictured them in my head.
I also got my YW medallion a second time, as a leader. It's silver and shiny...oooooh.
It was an amazing experience, mostly because I was able to share it with six Laurels in my ward.
Ian got two awards in May - one was an art award. A picture he drew at school was chosen to represent the school district at a local art show -who knew he had a creative side! All I ever see is the dominant, Ben-like, engineer side. He also received a trophy for swimming in a meet -where he swam a 100m IM -that's an individual medley, one length of each stroke. We were proud of him just for finishing the race. He keeps improving!










June - Summer, here we come!
We've got two June birthdays in our family -Kate turned three on the 16th and Jake turned 6 on the 21st. The summer officially began on June 18 and I promptly went to YW camp. So much fun! Jacob lost his first tooth. Like Ian, his teeth come in behind the existing one, resulting in two rows of teeth. DUH-nah, DUH-nah, DUH-nah...

July- Road trippin'
We went on a big Western Coast road trip! We stopped in Sacramento, the northern California Coast and the Redwoods, Vancouver, Washington, Crater Lake, Oregon, and San Francisco. We managed to see most of Ben's family, the Bjarnasons, the Blakes, and the Bettingers.
Later that month the boys had hero camp - I made memory books for 130 kids- and we saw some of the biggest waves ever seen in SoCal.











































August- Kicking back!
A great month to enjoy our beautiful surroundings. We went to the beach often, played with friends, went to parks. I organized my second annual Mom's beach retreat at Three Arch Bay, enjoyed a day in LA for a Youth temple trip, and headed to Bakersfield for two days of Youth Conference. We went river rafting and after bracing myself for 120 degree weater, it was surprisingly cool!
























September - Back in the saddle -almost.
We went on a quick trip to Utah to visit family over Labor Day weekend because school started so late this year. A few highlights were meeting our new niece, Claire, and going to Swiss Days in Midway - one of my favorite craft fairs (I do enjoy the atmosphere, too, although they take the Swiss theme a little too far by serving such delicacies as Swiss Tacos), and a trip to Pace's Dairy Ann in Bountiful. The boys started school on September 10 and Kate started an all girls "Princess Academy" the week after.

















And now that you have read my big, boring review, I shall reward you with the reason for my failed attempt at blogging again in September, even though the kids were at school and I should theoretically have loads of free time. Wrong! All I'm doing these days is thinking about food, trying not to think about food, taking naps, and eating more food so I don't throw up. Yep, I'm pregnant!!! We're having number 4 in May!

Eleven

Since I came out of my blogging shell last year around this time, I couldn’t let the streak end.

As we have been explaining to our children, today is our family’s birthday. Happy 11 years M- family!




Thank you, Kirsten, for being the wonderful woman that you are. You truly are amazing! I am so happy that we are married and am excited for the many, many years to come. I love you!

For those of you who are still watching this blog, Kirsten is planning on returning soon after her long blog absence. She has been working hard with the Young Women in our ward and loving it and had to slow down on the blogging for a while. But I have heard rumors that she is returning to the blog soon.

For a quick update, summer has been a blast, with a vacation to the Redwoods, Vancouver, WA, Crater Lake, San Francisco, and many family and friends along the way. Add to that Girls Camp, Youth Conference, Hero Camp for the kids, Cub Scout day camp, Girls Beach Retreat and lots of family beach trips and swimming, it has been one fun summer. Stay tuned...

The Sibs

I spent a weekend with my family in Utah. It was fun to hang out sans kids and enjoy some adult time together. My siblings have turned into some of my best friends. They are all such great people.

Janine (in pink) is kind, loyal, creative, a great photographer, and an excellent mom. She has a knack for decorating and an eye for beauty. One of my favorite memories about Janine is her obsession with all things rich and beautiful. She loved shiny pennies and you could trade her a shiny penny for an old dime any day. She'd b-line it to the fur coats in the department store while my mom shopped. she still loves to shop and likes everything purdy.

Stefanie (in purple) is gracious, a fabulous housekeeper, and very unselfish. She runs marathons, which is an amazing accomplishment all by itself. She is also one of the funniest people I know! I remember little Stefanie thinking she was Battlecat from He-man, growling at others and running on all fours. She still runs fast and occasionally growls, and although she has a little bit of Cringer inside her, Battlecat comes out when it's time to get tough.

Ryan (we call him "the boy") is hard-working, smart and a true gentleman. Maybe he should have been born 100 years ago, but then he would not be my fantastic brother would he? He made my trip possible with a sweet Delta buddy pass...thanks, Bro. I'll always remember him with an umbrella in hand, a top hat and a fake mustache, pretending he was some kind of wizard. And that was pre-Harry Potter. And did I mention he has the cutest little dimple ever?

Julianne (in jewel-toned blue) is generous, happy and cool. She's always up for a party! She works at a boutique and knows how to get her fash ON. Recently she accidentally ended up in a Salt Lake Magazine modeling a local designer's new line of clothes...and she was the cutest person in the photo shoot. I remember when she broke her arm and had that adorable little pink cast put on. Somehow she made it look cute and almost started a trend.

What's grosser than gross?

I'm having nightmares. I have to hide the library books we got for my son's insect report.

I've got a serious case of the heebie jeebies!

I learned the nastiest, most disgusting word I have ever heard.

Ootheca.















The hardened egg case of a female cockroach.

Can you believe my son chose the COCKROACH for his insect report?































Aaaaaaaah!


Tell me you don't have the heebie jeebies right now!