Our Visitors!!!

My cousin Amber and her family came down to Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago to visit. It was so nice to have them here. They arrived Friday afternoon. When I asked them what they wanted to do they said they wanted to go down to Fremont Street to see the lights. I thought ok. I think the last time I was down there was before Eric and I even started dating. However, it would be perfect because would be able to pick up Eric on our way there. After picking Eric up we headed down there. Once we arrived and started to walk down Fremont Street we soon realized why we never go down there, especially with children. It wasn't dark yet so we thought we would have dinner but we couldn't find any decent restaurants. So....we decided to leave and go to Claim Jumper at Town Square. The only thing that looked somewhat interesting on Fremont Street was the zip line going over the street. If I wasn't pregnant I might think that would be a fun date night for Eric and I. It looked fun!

Once we arrived at Town Square we felt much better. There were lots of kids and families and "normal" people walking around. We ate at Claim Jumper. All five kids were pretty good. They had a blast afterwards at the park. When they seemed to be done and when it was getting late we decided to head back home. We had to get up early for Kade's opening ceremonies and soccer game. 

On Saturday we spent the morning outside, freezing our buns off watching Kade's soccer game. Details are in a previous post. Thank you Andy and Amber for watching Kade's first soccer game and goal in the freezing cold! After Kade's soccer game we went back to our house to eat lunch. We then loaded everybody up and went down to the Bellagio and the MGM.

The Bellagio gardens always amaze me. Here is what it looks like for Spring.

Amazing picture all made out of flowers.

Pictures of the boys and our family.

Kade and Kyle with Kylee. All of them got a long really well.

When we were done with the gardens we went outside to watch the water show. This water show was to the theme song of Titanic, sung by Celine Dion.

We then went to the MGM so we could take the kids to the M&M Factory. Because of it being St. Patrick's Day it was a mad house. However, everyone did get some M&M's and the boys were excited to see the M&M race care again.

When we were done we headed back home. Andy and Amber were able to go out on a date :) The girls were really good while they were gone and went to sleep easily. We are so lucky and grateful Andy, Amber, Kylee and McKenna could come down to visit us. We wish we lived closer!!! We are really sorry we weren't able to get those tickets for you, but maybe we will next time! We hope you had fun and are glad you made it home safe!!

Ryan's Birthday

We went over to Grandma and Bryan's house for Ryan's birthday. The boys were super excited. My mom made Ryan's cake and I thought it turned out great. I guess she accidentally dropped part of the cake but it turned out to look like a big cliff. The boys loved all the trucks.

On Connor's birthday he could not figure out how to blow out the candles on his cake. Well, for Ryan's birthday he was blowing out the candles before Grandma could even get them lit. Silly boy!

                                     This is a perfect picture of Connor blowing out the candles.

Here are the boys cleaning off the trucks Ryan let them have.

We hope you had a wonderful birthday Ryan! Thanks for letting us share some time with you! We love you!!

Kade's Second Soccer Game

Kade's second soccer game was much better than the first one. It was warm outside. The kids seemed to know what to do this time and which goal to kick the ball to. Our little Kade is becoming quite the soccer player. His team won 2-1 with Kade scoring both the goals. Go Kade!!!! We will have video of them soon!

Kade's First Soccer Game

Kade had his first soccer game with the Las Vegas Road Runners. It was so fun to see him play! The most exciting highlight of the game was Kade scoring his first goal. It was the only goal for his entire team. We are so lucky to have a camcorder and Eric caught all of it. Here it is....

If you cannot view it from here click on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z88hNe5ehv4

We woke up bright and early to be at opening ceremonies. After a week of really nice weather today mother nature decided to be FREEZING!!! The ceremony only lasted 20-30 minutes. Afterwards we waited around for 30-40 minutes for the game to begin. Everyone was trying to stay warm.

Eric helped the coach hang the team banner. The coaches wife works at the Venetian too si she was able to get their sign department to make this banner.

Here is Kade with the coaches daughter and Addie, a little girl we know from church.

 At first the kids were kicking the ball towards the wrong goal. A few minutes into the game they started to figure out which goal was theirs. The coaches are allowed to stay on the field with them and tell them what to do. They had several little meetings.

We really like the coach. He is really great with the kids. We thought the other coach was so funny because he was "coaching" the kids on the field with his Starbuck's in hand. Kade had a lot of people cheering for him at this first game. All of his family was there (mommy, daddy, Kyle and Connor). Grandma came. My cousin Amber and her family came down for the weekend so they were there too! He had a lot of supporters.

At the end of the game the parents do a little tunnel for the kids to run through.

Kade was so excited after the game to have scored a goal, but he was so cold that he doesn't look very happy.

We are excited for next weeks game. Luckily it will be later in the day and warmer :)

Being Pregnant!!!

This post is mainly to remind me, not that I don't think I will forget, of what it is like to be pregnant. Today I am 29.5 weeks pregnant. Let me start from the beginning.

My reaction to each pregnancy has been different. With Kade we were excited being our first and all. Kyle was a little surprise, but Kade was 16 months old so it seemed fit to have another one. Connor was a complete surprise. I found out I was 10 weeks pregnant with him when Kyle was only 8 months old. I literally went to Eric crying that I was pregnant again. I just felt like I was starting to recover from having Kyle. With this one, Cam, I knew I was pregnant before I even purchased a pregnancy test. I am relieved Connor is as old as he is too, not that he is really old.

At the beginning of each pregnancy, except Connor, I am really sick. I am constantly throwing up and tired. I felt so bad for the boys and like a horrible mom because when Connor slept I turned on the T.V., went into my room and fell asleep. Thank goodness they just stayed in the T.V. room or their room while I was sleeping. I didn't feel like doing anything. The sight and smell of food would make me gag, so we ate out a lot. I didn't eat or drink anything. Our house was a disaster because I just did not have the energy to clean up. My doctor, Dr. Groom, gave me some medicine to help with all the sickness. Funny story about picking up my medicine....

I went to my first doctor's appointment and he told me they needed to hook me up to an IV due to me being so lathargic. Because of insurance the doctor could not do that at his office I would have to go to the emergency room. Knowing that I would be sitting there forever he gave me my prescription, to try to drink anything I could and to come back the next day to see if my levels were back to normal. My mom had the boys and I called her crying. She spent the rest of the day taking me to get drinks that I thought I would keep down and to pick up the medicine. While we were waiting for the prescription to be ready we went to Wal Mart. It was not that fun, for my mom nor I, to hassle with three boys at the store. I literally felt like I was going to pass out. We finally went to the check out line, the "20 items or less" check out line. Come to find out, right after we emptied our cart, we found out the people were waiting to get a price check. It was taking forever!!!! I noticed another line had only one person in it, so I re-loaded all of out items into the cart. Just as I was able to go to the next line a lady pulled up with well over 20 items. I was so mad. I asked her if she could see the sign. She just ignored me. I am muttering under my breath, still ready to pass out. Her husband told her to just go to a different line. She walked past me saying something like, "Well if it makes you happy" to me. We went to the other line and checked out. Low and behold the people were out and on their way before we were. I am usually the person in line just watching others be silly. I am patient, even though my monkeys are climbing and getting into EVERYTHING. Pregnancy, especially at that time, makes me soooo impatient.

After a few days with the medicine I started to feel better. I finally hit 12 weeks and the sickness was over. My energy and patience started to come back. Everything was back to normal until I came upon the third trimester. Now I am always tired, but can't sleep. My energy levels are extremely low. I have been trying to teach the boys that they can make messes as long as they clean them up. Most of the time they are pretty good at it. I just can't keep cleaning up after them. It makes me exhausted and my body, especially my back, starts to hurt. The only thing that seems to help relieve the pain and relax my body is a nice, warm bath (with no children, screaming, crying or staring at me). Because of all of this my patience levels are low. I find myself being mad at my boys for things I normally would have patience for. I have tried to explain to them that I am just not feeling well because Cam is taking all of my energy. They, especially little Connor, do not understand. I even snapped at Eric the other day for forgetting to give me something I needed. I rarely snap at him for anything. I will be so excited when the next 9.5 weeks are over and I can hold Cam in my arms and have my body back to myself. Being pregnant is just not fun.

Needless to say, Eric and I have decided for sure, little Cam is our last baby. I really do not want to be pregnant again. But most of important I get a peaceful feeling that everybody that is suppose to be in our family is here. I use to feel like someone is missing. I do not feel that way anymore. Sometimes I feel like my church friends think I am crazy for doing what I want to do. I then talk to my non-LDS friends and they think we are crazy for having four kids. I know though, no matter what, the decision is ours and what we feel is right for our family.

I will be so happy when May 21 comes along! It is not too far :)

Random Pictures

Whenever I have the camera out the boys always want their pictures taken. Here they are sitting in our new rocking chair Grandma and Bryan gave to us for Christmas.

I love my boys, especially my "big" boy! It will be so fun once Cam is here. They are getting big so fast. I can't believe Kade is going to be signed up for kindergarten in just two weeks. I am sad because I feel like their young years are going away. Now Kade will have the "world" coming into his life too. I hope we have taught him well enough to know what is right and wrong. At least I have a couple more years before Kyle starts school. Kade started competitive soccer today. Eric took him to meet his team and have his first practice. He was so excited, especially to have his daddy going with him :) He still loves preschool. He is learning a lot. The majority of the time he still my little helper. He tries so hard to be so good!

Kyle is also getting big. He likes to talk. He can still be a little stubborn. I have to threaten him with something he likes to get him to do anything. Some funny stories....Kyle loves his scriptures we bought him for Christmas. The Book of Mormon has his name inscribed on it. One day he was just not doing what I asked him to do. I told him I would take away his scriptures. He still didn't do what I asked. Finally, I took his scriptures and put them on a high shelf. He started screaming and crying. I told him as soon as he did what I asked him to I would give him back his scriptures. He immediately did what I asked him to do. One day when were driving Eric to work he cried almost the entire way there because he didn't have his scriptures with him.

One Sunday we were driving home from church. Since church is so close we don't worry about completely buckling them in. This particualr Sunday we buckled only part of his seat belt up. He cried the entire way home because his seat belt was not fully buckled up. Kyle is finally not crying when we leave sharing time to go to our classes. That is a relief!! I think he really likes going to sharing/singing time and to his Sunbeam class.

A couple of Sundays ago I subbed for the organist. I am usually up there the entire time so I was glad Eric was there to watch them. Right after we arrived Connor started crying like crazy. We don't know why, but it made Eric sit outside during all of sacrament. While I was playing prelude I say Kade and Kyle sitting down all by themselves. I thought Eric would surely be in there any minute. Nope. The boys were sitting in the pew the entire time by themselves. From what I could see they were behaving themselves, except for when I saw Kyle take a swing at Kade. Luckily, the nice sister behind them said something. After church I was talking to a friend that was sitting right in front of them. She said she was amazed at how well behaved they were for sitting all by themselves. I guess she didn't see that swing by Kyle :) Other than that I am very proud of them for sitting there the entire time being reverent. They took the sacrament and did everything they were suppose to.

As a mom I am constantly worried if I am doing everything the boys need me to do for them. I want them to grow to be independant, kind, hard working and faithful boys. I know there are days when I could have done a lot better... been more patient, played more, not worry so much about the house being cleaned, etc. My main concern is that as they grow older they will look back at their childhood and say it was really good. They will remember their mom and dad loved each other and them very much. I worry about what I am teaching them and what I am not teaching them. I figured if the main thing they learn from me is to be a good person, that they make their own choices and "suffer" the consequences (good or bad) and about the great plan of happiness I will have succeeded. Regardless of how hard or boring some days can be I would not rather be anywhere else. I am sooooo grateful for Eric and all the hard work he does for us so that we can have everything we need. We are truly blessed with everything we need and a little more.