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!