update

Ok, so here's the update that many of you have requested. I was sick with the stomach flu last week, so instead of sending out Christmas cards or doing something productive, I stayed in bed most of the week. Luckily the kids like Ramen Noodles cause we all went through a lot of them. Jared made it back on Sunday and I think he is finally adjusted to the new time zone and caught up on his sleep and is ready to celebrate the holidays and just being back in the U.S. And last but not least.......by popular request here is the belly shot.....yes this is what a ten pound baby looks like....well only 13 more days....so almost 10 pounds.....and getting there quickly. So, since everybody loves a freak show.....ENJOY! Merry Christmas!

Grandma Benedict's visit

Jared's mom came to visit last week and we definately put her to work. I had a huge project that I wanted to do for Jared's Christmas present and I hadn't a clue how to do it, so she practially did it for me. It turned out great and I can't wait for him to see. Unfortunately he checks the blog every now and again so I can't post the pics of it yet, but needless to say my mother-in-law spent countless hours working on it and being very patient with me and my non-crafty skills. Thanks to her, it turned out better than we could have hoped. Between that and playing with the kids I think we wore her out. I can't tell you how nice it has been to have help the last month. Since I go to the doctor three times a week, I've kinda overused my babysitters and Maxine was here to save me since in addition to my doctors visits I also had some long meetings to go to that I couldn't take the kids too.....Thank you Thank you mom. Plus, my tub and kitchen sink have never been so clean and the kids are still talking about all the fun things she brought for them to do and play with. But I still can't decide if the best part of the week was the FABULOUS foot rub she gave me or the AMAZING rolls she made. It's a toss up....THANKS MOM!
Here's Mia at the ward Christmas party.....Maxine saved me again here....She took Mia to see Santa while I was out in the hall with Mason who had blood GUSHING from his mouth (he tripped and bashed his lip on a chair.) Luckily Mia was still able to see Santa.....How do single mom's do it all????....I guess their kids just don't always get to see Santa.

The first night Maxine was here we made a stop at Walmart and got TONS of Christmas decorations.... because we've always gone home for Christmas and haven't invested too much into decorations of our own. Then we went to a tree lot and picked out a real tree. It was so much fun and we couldn't have done it without mom's help...I'm sure the guys at the tree lot would have just laughed if I had come by myself with my big belly!

Mom and the kids did a great job of decorating it.

The rest of Grandma Crowther's visit

I know it's been a long time since I've posted, but it's not because I haven't had a lot to post, it's just cause I was lazy; so...here goes.

My mom was here for Thanksgiving and the kids had a wonderful time with all the Grandma attention. Luckily my mom is good at turning some not so fun tasks into entertainment because we had a large to-do list in order to get my small apartment ready for another baby. We(mostly my mom) spent lots of time organizing, rearranging, and cleaning. You know all those projects that you keep putting off because they are too overwhelming to start/do/or finish? Well I have a lot of those and having so much help here the last month has given me incentive to attempt some of them. Example....I haven't done any scrap booking in about 3 years, so I finally got all my pictures organized, put into chronological order and put into books and labeled.

Mom and the kids making pizza breadsticks




Having fun in the snow with Grandma

My mom made play dough for the kids and they spent HOURS playing with it. It was a big hit.


We put up the few Christmas decorations we had.
The kids at the park with Grandma. (This is one of the reasons I love Denver....you can play in the snow one day and play at the park the next.)
Mia was very excited to come home from school and find her room had been rearranged, cleaned and organized.

Thanks again mom for all the help and fun!

Thanksgiving 2008

We had a great Thanksgiving! Mom made a fabulous dinner and Mia read us her "Thanksgiving Diary" from school. She also told us all about the pilgrims and Squanto and the Indians and the Mayflower....(she knew much more about the original story than I did). The kids were so hyper and had a blast....I think holidays and grandmas will do that to kids!
The Turkey!
The final result!
Satisfied customer!
The kids were too impatient to wait for the wish bone to dry and harden.

Mia's week at school

Mia had a busy week at school. She gave her first presentation of the year and she was amazing! It was a project all about her and her family. She made her poster and came up with the ideas and practiced it every night for a week. Her teacher was so impressed he told the rest of the class to do it just like Mia and pointed out all the specific things she did perfectly! I was so proud!

Mia and her teacher, Mr. Vittal.


Mia also had her grandparents program and she was so excited that she actually had a grandparent there. Thanks mom for being here! Mia and my mom took some pics on the playground after the program.

Mia's gymnastics again

At the end of each session they let the parents come in and take pictures, so yes I am once again putting pictures of Mia at gymnastics because heaven forbid I take some pictures and not post them =)

Craftiness

I put aside my craftiness ban a few weeks ago at Super Saturday and made four place mats. No, we don't usually use place mats, but the tote bags looked like more sewing, so I decided we would become a place mat kinda family. It ended up being a lot of sewing anyway, but luckily my friends Leslie, Barbara and Monae all took pity on me and took turns helping me finish what should have been a relatively simple project for most people, but for me was very elaborate. Now I can put my craftiness ban back on till next years Super Saturday!
P.S. They were the perfect touch to our Thanksgiving Dinner.

Grandpa Crowther's visit

Thanks to everyone who has written and wished us luck while Jared is gone. I keep telling everyone that we are doing great....which we are, but every now and then it is SOOOO nice to be pampered....especially when you are pregnant. My dad is my hero. I can't tell you how wonderful it was to have him hear for five days. Besides keeping the kids entertained 24/7, he cooked, cleaned, did dishes, laundry, cleaned my car inside and out, helped with the shopping, took the garbage out, helped the kids make me breakfast in bed, made caramel popcorn for 60 people for my visiting teaching conference, helped organize my bins of baby stuff....the list goes on and on. He wouldn't let me lift a finger! He reminded me of one of those husbands on TV that once they find out their wife is pregnant they wait on her hand and foot.....except this was real life and he really is amazing!
Here is one of the many trips to the park.
My dad taught Mason how to play baseball. Poor kid had to use Mia's sutff, so yes it is pink, but he sill did great. If you look closely in the 2nd picture you can see the green ball that he hit is in the air.

My dad babysat the kids while I was at one of my many doctors appointments and I came home to find that my dad took the kids on a walk to gather stuff to make a craft. He helped them build these nature crafts....who would have thought my dad was so crafty!

My dad also gave Mia several piano lessons and helped her practice out of her piano books every day. He spent hours playing Diego and board games and read about fifty books to my kids. I can not thank him enough.
Mason and Mia both cried when we dropped him off at the airport. Mason kept saying that he didn't like airports and it wasn't fair. Mia finally suggested we sing the song from the sound of music about our favorite things and when we couldn't remember any more words, she said we should just list our favorite things. Mason said "when Grandpa comes to our house" and then started crying again. He finally calmed down and every few minutes would say 'I don't like it!' If it hadn't been so sad, it would have been hilarious. Thanks again Dad for Everything!!!

Halloween

It was great having my dad here for the Halloween weekend. He helped me take the kids to the rec center Halloween party where the kids got to play games and eat junk food. Plus they ended up with a bunch of candy.


After the party we played at McDonalds till it was dark and then we went Trick or Treating. We haven't done that since Mia was two, so this was Mason's first time and the first time Mia could remember going Trick-or-Treating. They had a blast and seemed pleasantly surprised that all these strangers were just waiting around to give them handfuls of candy. We only went to about 10 houses and they got tons of candy.

And just in case you were wondering....Mia is not obsessive compulsive, but she did organize all her candy into seperate piles before she would go to bed.

Carving pumpkins with Grandpa Crowther

One of the first things we did after my Dad got here last week was to buy a Big pumpkin and carve it. The kids wouldn't touch the gunk on the inside, so it's a good thing he was here.

On the wall behind the kids is the picture Mia painted at school of how she wanted the pumpkin to look. Dad did a great job of recreating what she wanted.

Trunk-or-Treat 2008

Here are the kids after Trunk-or-Treat. Our ward did it the week before Halloween, so we/I have been eating candy for several weeks now.

Mason's pre-school

I snapped a quick picture of Mason and his friends at pre-school at our house last week. He loves mommy pre-school and I've been pleasantly surprised by how well his busy three year old body is able to obey during those four hours a week.

Ty and Trinity in the front and Katy Mason and Ellana in the back all wearing their letter H hats and eating their snacks.

Pics of Chile

Jared hosted the other participants in his program this weekend. They came down from Santiago and Jared took them to some tourist spots near the jungle. Hear are a few pictures he sent.

He made it to Chile

Jared left last week for Chile and after a couple of short flights and one very long one, he made it. The kids get to see and talk to him every day on the computer, and they always come running to tell me whenever the computer is ringing. Jared says he is doing well and is just trying to adjust to the language again. He's only gotten lost a couple times and he says that the roads aren't too crazy, just a few weird road rules he'll have to get use to. We miss him already, but only 10 weeks to go.

I'm not sure how he got all this and more to Chile, but he managed to pack it all in.

Mason's 3rd Birthday

Even though Mason didn't technically turn 3 till yesterday, we wanted to celebrate it before Jared left. So, the night before Jared left, we went back to the fun center where Mia had her party. It was even more fun without all the craziness of all the friends. It was fun to spend some time as a family before Jared left. Then we went home to open presents and have cake and ice cream. Thanks again to everyone for the gifts and birthday wishes.