I Hate Tiger

First, thank you so much for all your kind comments about finding out I'm having another boy. This is why I blog! Now I need to climb onto my high horse for a minute.

I have always hated Tiger Woods. With all of the news lately, now I have good reason.

I have so many questions about this whole mess. But here are my top three:

1. How on earth did he keep this up for so long without the media finding out? There is no doubt in my mind that his manager and caddie had to have known. He was picking these ho-bags up at nightclubs for crying out loud! How did he get away with it?

2. Why on earth did these women sleep with Tiger for free? He is not attractive--he's no Denzel!--and he wasn't paying them a thing. I would feel better about this if they were getting paid. He is not cute, not funny, not charismatic. I get why Elin married him. I don't get why women sleep with him for free.

3. How is this going to affect the world of golf? I really don't care about the answer to this one. Golf is the most boring sport to watch ever. And don't get me started on how it should be called a game, not a sport (sorry Tyler!)

Even if Tiger comes back to the "sport," his greatness at golf will always be overshadowed by his weakness of character and lack of moral values. amen.

Boy oh Boy!

I'm having another boy....

I'm only 15 weeks but because we are still on the insurance from Sam's old company ie. the world's crappiest insurance, I wasn't going to be able to get an ultasound until sometime in February when our new insurance kicked in. So Sam insisted we head down to Fetal Studio (an ultrasound place in the mall--I know--only in Utah!) and find out what we are having.

So we did and I saw it before the tech even told me. So did Sam. Another boy. I was going to try to put up a good front for the blog and just announce it and let the congrats roll in. But to be completely honest, this has been a little hard for me. I really thought this was a girl, I wanted another girl and I wanted Sammie to have a sister.

Sammie took the news really well, better than I thought. She just keeps saying under her breath "We wanted a girl and we're getting another boy...."

I'm embarrassed for being even a little disappointed because 1) I have three healthy kids already 2) I already have a girl and 3) every child is a gift and I know when he gets here I will fall madly in love with him.

Ryan 6 weeks

The hardest part is that Sammie has been an absolute joy lately. I think four is the best age ever and she is the sweetest, cutest four year old around. I would love to have another Sammie and let her wear all of the clothes that I've spent literally thousands of dollars on (some still with the tags that were bought for this baby.)

But you know what? All of that is just stuff. It can be passed on to my sister when she has a baby girl, or my sister-in-law, or sold but Ryan will have a little buddy forever and Luke has been such a good, sweet, easy boy, that maybe I will just beg Heavenly Father a little for another Luke (but maybe with Ryan's dimples.)

Me and my boys circa 2008

We'll just do a little more basketball and a little less ballet. There will be more urine around the toilet and less clothes to buy, more transformers and less Barbies. More jokes and less drama. Another girl just wasn't in the cards for me. But I'm okay with that.

Tomorrow I will finally post my "I hate Tiger" post that has been in my brain forever.

Christmas Home Tour

The Nester is doing a Christmas Tour of Homes this year. Basically I gravy train anything she is involved in. So here is a peek inside my home at Christmastime:

The Family Tree:


This tree is in the (wait for it!) family room. I actually let the kids help decorate it--and then I fix it once they go to bed. It is mostly Santas and snowmen with a few random things mixed in. This is where we put the ornaments that the kids make at school. I also have a tradition of buying an ornament whenever I go on a trip. These go here as well.







I tie ribbon on everything that isn't moving:




Mom's Tree:

I almost get teary-eyed telling the story of how this tree came to be. My kids and I were at Thanksgiving Point two years ago riding the trolley with a group of people from my neighborhood. It just so happened that TPoint had put all of their Christmas stuff on sale half price that day. I fell in love with these red and green balls. I called my husband and asked if it would be okay if I bought a few things for a tree in the living room. He was distracted with some game and mumbled a yes. I came home with all of it.

I'm pretty sure I had this tree in the pre-existence--I love it that much. The kids aren't allowed to touch it or help decorate it. Ignore the lamp cords and the fact that I cut off the top of the tree in the photo.

My favorite red lanterns that stay up through Valentines Day:

Sammie's Sweets Tree:



There is a tree under all those ornaments, I promise. I collected ornaments for this tree over a couple years time from Taipan and Roberts. I love this tree. Sammie understands that she can help unwrap the ornaments but not help decorate the tree because of the flocking. I am very anal about some things and Christmas brings it out in me.

This pink velvet Santa stands next to Sammie's tree. It is over 50 years old. My mom had it when she was a little girl and I had it when I was a little girl and now it is Sammie's. She plans to give it to her little girl.


Luke's Sports Tree:

Luke decorates the entire thing himself and I don't touch it. My mom sewed the bball tree skirt.

That's it folks...Join the tour. I'm headed to your homes next!

Two Pink Lines

I'm not having twins (thank goodness!) but aren't these two the sweetest? picture from www.peekaboophotos.com.

Sam and I could not decide for the longest time whether we should have a fourth child. Honestly, I have had my hands completely full with three kids and Ryan might possibly have been the worst baby on the planet. No one believes me on this because he is an angel in public. But he is screamer and he didn't nap for a full year. And I had a really bad pregnancy with him. Sam and I were convinced he was sent as a sign that we were to never procreate again.

But somehow, someway I began to feel like I needed to have one more. Sam didn't want to. He was sure that my practically non-existent cooking and cleaning had no where to go but down if I had another kid. I assured him it wasn't getting any better even without one more. Further, he argued that our entire family couldn't ride in his jeep if we added another child. He honestly thought that was a valid reason to not have any more children.

I consulted friends and family. My friend Mandee told me I wasn't done until I had one too many. Others told me I had to try for a sister for Sammie. Still others told me I had my hands full and a mother knows her limits.

Somehow, I knew that despite the craziness at my house--the noise, the mess, the urine around the toilet, on the floor and up the walls in my kids' bathroom (Heaven help me if I get one more boy!) I had to do it. Because as much as I hate getting huge (and I will get huge) and as hard as newborns are, I know I will never regret having another child. I may always regret it if I don't.

The minute I got pregnant, it hit me that I already have one too many and I should have stopped at three. After a few weeks of sheer panic, I calmed down and began to be excited about this pregnancy.


Sammie has her heart set on a little sister and she has already told me she has no use for another brother. I've assured her that no matter what--we will always have the two of us--just the girls and we can go do fun things together. She replied that would be fun but that it would be even more fun with one more tiny little girl. She's right. But no matter the gender, I will be so happy with one more tiny, fuzzy, bundle of newborn love.

Here are some fun pictures of us telling our families at Thanksgiving. I was twelve weeks along and they were pretty shocked and excited:

My mom getting the news at Mimi's during Thanksgiving dinner.

Sam's mom getting the news at our home.

We told them we had some recent pictures of the kids are gave them these three pictures with the ultrasound photo on the bottom:

I'm too lazy to go find the ultrasound pic but you get the idea. I'm due June 8th!

The Reason for the Season

Lately, I've been feeling a bit sorry for myself for some really dumb reasons--like the fact that I can't do the home improvement projects that I want to do to make my house cute.

Tonight, I slammed my finger while putting away my Kitchen-Aid mixer. Like usual, I was moving too fast and trying to do too much at once. It felt like I slammed my finger in a car door and I literally cried like a baby.

All three of my kids gathered around me and hugged and kissed me. It melted my heart.

While I was curled up feeling sorry for myself, Sam turned on Mr. Krueger's Christmas for the kids. As I was watching, I was reminded of how much I love my Savior Jesus Christ and how much he has done for me. If you haven't seen that show, please get your hands on a copy. I think it is even on You Tube. I know it was made in the '70s and it is totally old school but I love the scene where he visits baby Jesus in the manger. It will change your Christmas season. As I was watching, I looked around at my cute kids watching so intently with the sweetest looks on their faces. Ryan would make a "meow" sound every time the cat came on the screen. I realized all at once that I am so blessed and I have been given more than I ever deserve--I have everything I could ever want with my own family.

Just a cheesy Christmas post but I didn't want to forget how I felt tonight in the midst of the harried, crazy Christmas season.

And to All a Good Night

Recently Sam started a new job. He took an in-house position with a company that he loves and it has been a dream job so far. I'm so happy to see him leaving for work happy everyday.

Last night was the company party at Thanksgiving Point. I'm three months pregnant and officially in the awkward stage. I no longer have a waist of any kind and am basically just looking chubby, but not pregnant. The fact that I'm naturally built like a chicken doesn't help.

So finding something to wear to the party (to meet all of his new coworkers and boss) was a bit excruciating. After trying on all of my too-tight party clothes and then trying on all of my frumpy loose fat clothes. I ended up dragging out the maternity bin from the basement and decided to embrace the maternity thing.

Here is the result:


I also wore my long red coat for as long as humanly possible to disguise the awkward outfit. I ended up having a good time and realized no one cared what I wore.

When I got home last night, Luke and Sammie had convinced the babysitter that they could both sleep in our bed. (Moving them is a total pain and look how comfortable they look:)


On to today:

I threw a baby shower for my darling friend Brittney. Brittney was one of my laurels when I was young women's president and has also done all of my overnight babysitting for the last two years. When she got married her cute husband babysat with her. Yes, you can hate her for looking this good with less than a month to go:


The food turned out well and I think my spray paint job on the plate stand was well worth it!:


This this seems to be a random post with a bunch thrown in, so here are the kids in their Christmas pjs:


Sammie and Luke love Mr. Peeks. He is the elf that comes to visit our house each December and watches the kids and reports back to Santa.


The kids take good care of him. This is how I found him tonight tucked in with a place mat as a blanket:

The Nester Would be Proud

I'm throwing a baby shower on Saturday morning and for the food table, I'm using a red table cloth with white polka dots.


I needed a cream color plate stand to put my polka dot plates on. I found an old metal one in the basement--totally not cute--wish I had a picture. I took it out back and spray painted it cream.


With plates:


When I got done with that, I was so excited I grabbed this picture off my wall. I've always hated the goldish frame.


I sprayed that too. I'm not loving the cream but I think it is an improvement:


Now I'm wandering my house looking for other stuff to spray. Someone stop me.