Sounders Game with the Family

Updates on Clifton -
He is mister know it all lately and believes what his friends tell him.  He will say something and I will tell him that its not correct and he will come back with "yes it is, I know it is."  So be careful what you tell him, he might believe it.  And he is starting to notice unfair things going on around him.  Like Alex drinks soda when he gets a head ache and Clifton wants soda.  I will let him have it every now and then but not often and he gets upset that his Dad gets it but not him.

Updates on McKay -
She is starting to wake up earlier and earlier:/  Hoping its a phase because she has always been my better sleeper and I don't enjoy both kids up at 6am.  She is still taking naps and really needs them when she wakes up that early.

Updates on Baby #3 -
30 weeks!!!!  And the count down begins:)  I may have forgotten how it felt with the other two but I swear this baby moves a whole lot more and its very very uncomfortable!  I think she/he is trying to rip or kick or punch out of there.  I am a little nervous as to what that means when she/he gets here:/

Monday night we carved pumpkins that we got from the pumpkin patch.

And it was a fun night.  At first the kids were afraid of touching the insides but eventually did it and had a blast.  Alex made the ninja turtle and I made the unikitty.  Both turned out well.

Thursday McKay had dance.  The last couple weeks she has been crying when we go to dance and saying she doesn't want to stay.  I was worried something happened but Thursday she enjoyed it again.  I stayed with her for the first 15 minutes dancing (yep the other moms were watching and laughing at prego trying to plié) but then I could watch from the other room.  She loved it again and it made me so happy.  Dance has been very good for McKay.

Her teacher brought in her points that day and let the kids try them on.  It was super cute!

Friday night the YMCA had a Halloween party.

 We haven't gotten their costumes together quite yet so we busted out some superhero costumes we already had.

It was real busy but still we had a fun night playing.

Saturday was a big day for us!  We had planned a trip to Seattle to watch the Sounders final game of the season with the kids, Grandma and Grandpa Peterson, Aunt Andrea, and some cub scouts and their family from our ward.  Oh it was such a wonderful day.  The weather worked out pretty good for us.  We had a beautiful ferry ride and dry walk to the stadium.  Our seats were covered so we stayed dry and warm.  The walk back was a little rainy but the kids really enjoyed walking and jumping in all the puddles and there are a lot of them in Seattle:)

We had so much fun and we won!!! Which was a big win for us because we won the Supporters Shield.  My kids did AMAZING and enjoyed being there.  But I think we will keep most Sounders games to date nights and with other adults:)  Maybe we will make a tradition of the whole family going to a game ONCE a year.  Now the Sounders go the playoff in 1st place.  My birthday is coming up and I am pretty sure we are going to the first game of the play offs.  Happy birthday to me, maybe the Sounders will win this year?

Every Sunday I get to go to church and spend time with the children of our ward.  Since serving with them my heart has doubled in size from the love that I have for them.  And Sunday it got even bigger when a class heart attacked the primary door for me.

What wonderful children they are so full of love and kindness.  And what wonderful teachers I get to serve with!  I am so blessed:)

Pumpkin Patch

Updates on Clifton and McKay -
This week we put the two kids together in Clifton's room.  We decided it was time since McKay has been begging to have someone sleep in her room with her and Clifton also wanted her to be in his room.  I also wanted to give it time for them to get use to it before baby gets here.

And it has gone better than I expected.  Clifton wakes up early still but lays quietly in bed until 7 and then leaves the room quietly not waking McKay up.  So it was a good change and they seem to LOVE the change.  I am not sure if it is because they are sharing a room but they have gotten along better this week than most.  Hopefully it continues this way!

Updates on Baby #3 -
29 weeks, officially in the third trimester!  I am still doing well.  Getting more uncomfortable and having a hard time sleeping, but staying active.  However I cannot resist chocolate!  I have been doing well until now.  All I want is chocolate, tootsie rolls are my weakness.

Monday we got blessed with another dry and sunny day.  So we went to Lions Park to play with friends.

We love our friends!

That night we made our potato head pumpkins.  This is one of my favorite traditions we do for Halloween each year.

From left to right is Alex's, mine, Clifton's, and McKay's pumpkin.  They turned out super cute!  A fun night.

Wednesday the kids and I spent the morning playing at Tacoma Children's Museum.

This week the kids have really enjoyed the sandbox.  I guess they needed the rain to make it appealing.

I think they touched it twice this summer but have played in it three times this week.

Saturday we had a full day!  That morning we started our day by helping clean our church building.

Then we headed to a pumpkin patch in Buckley.

 I know I am bias but man he is one handsome boy!

There was a monster truck that took people out for rides and was the highlight of the trip, well worth the travel over there.  We also got to do a corn maze and find all the planets hidden in there.  There were a lot of fun things to do and we had a blast!

Then we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Peterson's for the night.  I have the best in laws anyone could ever ask for.  That night Alex and I went to the comedy while McKay and Clifton spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa.

We enjoyed this years Last Comic Standing quite a bit and were excited to see the tour come near us. It was my first comedy and was fun.  And we got to meet our favorite comedian from the show:)  Great date night.

Sunday we were able to go to church with Grandma and Grandpa and spend another day with them watching some football.  It was such a fun weekend!  We can't thank Grandma and Grandpa enough for letting us come spend time with them and to watch our kids while we went out on a date.

I think my favorite part about the whole weekend was Alex getting out his favorite toys when he was a young boy.  You would have thought it was Christmas day.  They played with Alex and his old toys for hours.  It was so cute!  And we were able to bring them home and add them to their collection of toys.  I love that Alex saved his favorite toys and that the kids think they were pretty cool.

Zoo Trip

Updates on McKay -
She is no longer wearing pull ups at night time!  She was dry every morning this week.  I love when things just click for them.  Woot woot a short time of no diapers or anything:)  I will enjoy this short little break. Very proud of her.

Love this silly girl to pieces.

Updates on Clifton -
I am not sure if he is trying to help me out with the parenting or what but he sure thinks he is in charge in this house.  He answers McKay's questions, tries to discipline her, tattles, everything.  It really gets under McKay's skin.  I am positive he is trying to help and he is also the first child, but I need to get ahold of this and try to calm it down.  Maybe he needs a job in the house where he is in charge of?

Updates on Baby #3 -
28 weeks almost to the third trimester, it only gets harder from here:/  But I have been able to stay active and that has made me feel better.  I am hoping I can keep it up.

Monday we had some beautiful weather and we got outside to play with our friends.

I am loving the warmer fall weather we are having thus far and so are the kids.

For FHE I really wanted to talk about pray.  The thing I felt the most impressed upon this general conference was prayer.  There were a couple talks about shielding our kids every morning with prayer.  We do great and night time, eating time, and family prayers but not morning prayers.  Even me:/  So we talked about the importance of prayer and made prayer rocks to help us pray in the morning as well.

And it has worked.  Clifton sees his rock and has reminded us every morning to pray.  Clifton has always had a crazy good memory.  I hope we can keep it up and make it a regular thing in our house.

Tuesday we decided to go visit the zoo.

Always fun to do.  However I underestimated how tired I would be after pushing two kids in a stroller around the zoo.  But it was a good exercise for me and we had a blast.

Thursday was another dance class for McKay.  She went in and was having a blast, then half way through she started crying and refused to stay.

Hoping it was just a bad day and that she still loves her dance class.  It has been so good for her.  Making friends and having something all about her and not about Clifton has helped with her attitude.

That night was Clifton's last soccer game of the season.  Oh we will miss it so much.  I LOVED coaching!  The whole family loved going, playing and cheering him on.

We are super excited for next year.  Randi once again put together another great soccer league and we feel so blessed to be apart of it.

Saturday our stake had a day of fitness.  They set up a mile loop and had places to stop along the mile and do different fitness tasks (push ups, lunges, jumping jacks, etc...)  Clifton was so very into it, probably one of my favorite things about him.  He is my little runner.  I plan on doing more and more runs with him and keep his excitement for running going strong.  We ran together 2 miles.  McKay did great the first mile but needed some motivation and being carried the second.  However very good attitudes from both of my kids.  A fun activity.

Plus there were ribbons for everyone who participated.

After the event we were by the little trains so we decided to go on a ride.

Always a fun thing to do.  I love riding the trains through the trees especially in fall time.  What a beautiful place Washington is.

General Conference 2014

Updates on Clifton -
He has been complaining about his head hurting lately, which scares me.  He was sick this week so I was hoping it had to do with that but even when he was feeling better he complained about his head.  Alex gave him a blessing so hopefully they will stop or I can get guidance on what to do for him.  Alex gets migraines so it could be something like that.  But I feel so bad for him.

Updates on McKay -
This last week she has woken up with a dry pull up, so we are done with pull ups.  Let's see if we can be done for good!  She says she wants to be done with diapers so I sure hope so.  She took a lot longer than Clifton did so to me this feels like a long time.  But so happy she wants to be all done.

Clifton loves his sisters kisses:)

They sure make me laugh:)

Updates on Baby #3 -
27 weeks!  Glucose test happened this week, yuck!  And I have not heard anything so I am hoping that means I passed.

Yes I am wearing my Sounders jersey and yes I know it hardly fits, but I got to support my team:)

Monday for FHE we prepared for General Conference coming up this weekend.

We talked about following the prophet.  Then we played a game of follow the leader but put a picture of the prophet on the leader so we were following the prophet.  Simple but fun activity.

We were sick for a few days this week so we did not do too many fun things.  Just hid inside and cuddled:/  I guess we got to get use to sickness again, it's that time of year.

But by Thursday we were all feeling better and McKay could go to her dance class.

McKay is still loving her class and she is making friends.  Which is so good to see.  She often gets mad at other kids her age so I love seeing her play happily with friends.

Clifton was feeling better in time for soccer so he and I were able to go.

He got his soccer pictures in.  They turned out pretty cute!  I love my team photo and feel so blessed to be able to coach his team this year.

Sunday we got to spend the day at Grandma and Grandpa Peterson's and watch General Conference with family.  It is always fun to get together.  I think I ate a little too many yummy treats (Aunt Tracie makes delicious treats, I just can't say no too especially pregnant).

A wonderful session of conference and a wonderful time with family.  I think Grandpa survived the attack from Charlie and Clifton:)