SLC trip and Funnies

Brad had his annual budget meeting in SLC a week ago. Highlights from this trip include: going to Ruth's diner (amazing steak special), seeing the lights at temple square, the Christmas show we went to with Brad's company (super fun and funny) (thanks Kelsey for making that possible for us), and visiting with my old roomie Meg. Ruth seriously fell in love with Meg and is still talking about how fun it was to see her at Ikea.

Ruth likes to watch Dora, who often says, "Come one, vamanos!" So Ruth now runs around saying, "Come on, dominoes!"

We just bought a used suburban (which we love) and Ruth 1) called it a limosine when we first showed it to her and 2) now says whenever we drive around in it, "Mom, our suburban is totally freakin' awesome!"

My Kids, All 3 of Them

Ruth and Will have been playing SO well together, it has been making this pregnancy much easier for me. Today I built them this fort to play in. They climbed in there and I could hear Ruth expounding the mysteries of toddler-dom to Will. They she paused and said, "Ya know buddy, I really love you." Best mommy moment in a while.

Another great mommy moment was about a week ago. Ruth was saying bedtime prayers and said, "Please bless the new baby that won't be here for a long time."

Speaking of the "new baby," it's due date is May 31st, which will officially give us a spring holiday season with Brad and Will's birthdays, along with our anniversary. Baby 3 (or XI as Tia is calling it, since it will be Paula and Asa's eleventh grandchild) is now 15 weeks along and other than all day nausea without puking, has been the easiest pregnancy. XI has definitely had the largest impact on my taste buds, everything tastes weird. Cravings that have come and gone include tuna, bologna (which is very normal for my pregnancies), anything carbonated and eggs. For a couple weeks I was eating about 3 eggs a day and not a whole lot else because of nausea. The past few days I've woken up and felt great so I'm hoping that the whole morning sickness thing is gone with the first trimester.

Last week we had a check up day. Ruth is in the 25% for height and weight and Will is in the 75% for height...which explains why everywhere we go people are asking if they are twins! The doctor said Ruth is clearly very intelligent, based on her use of language. Apparently 3 year olds are only expected to speak in 3 and 4 word sentences and know ONE color. If that's the case we are definitely excelling in that area. She has fallen in love with coloring and is quickly learning the alphabet and their sounds. Will is also working hard on language development. Everyday he tries out new words, but right now my favorite thing he says is "Roosh" (Ruth). He clearly adores his sister and loves being involved in everything she does. He has also started to love reading and we'll sit and read book after book. He's also very affectionate, but be careful. If you ask for a hug he's gonna give you a kiss on the lips!

I love my kiddos and can't wait to have XI here to love too. We find out if XI is a boy or a girl on January 17th, I'll be 21 weeks then so we should know for sure!

Thanksgiving Week

We were so happy to have a visit from Asa and Paula during Thanksgiving week. They pretty much spoiled all of us and it was a blast. Here are some pictures of what we did while they were around.

This week I also finished a Christmas Quilt to throw over the back of our couch, thanks Paula!