Birthday Weekend

On Thursday the 25th was my Mom's birthday. I had a post I was working on and was going to post on the "day", but then of course I lost everything. So here is two post in one, one for Mom, and the other for our weekend fun.

My Mom...doesn't everyone think they have the best mom in the world!! Well I do. I love my Mom. We've always been really close and she is one of my best friends. She knows all my good and bad things and still loves me. She's been through a lot and has come out a stronger person. She's strong in the Gospel, and loves her family. She loves each and everyone of her grand kids, and they all love to go to Gramimi's house. She ,of course, gives them everything that they want and has a hard time saying no. (Like every grandma!) She has the best husband in the world. Pop does so much for her and our family! I couldn't have asked for a better Pop. They are always so willing to help make our lives easier and provide help in the area that we need it. I love you Mom!! You will always be my best friend and role model. Our little family Christmas '81.Mom and Pop at the Grant County Fair 1992.

Mom and I at my wedding 2002.

So here's our weekend. Matt wanted to surprise my Mom for her birthday. So we actually left Wednesday night after Matt's anatomy lab. We didn't get to Mom's until almost midnight. I wasn't going to get her up, but of course Pop had to take the boys in there. She was surprised. It was fun. She had no clue, and of course we were able to wish her happy birthday right away!

The boys tuckered out on the way there.

Thursday, Mom's birthday, we went and had lunch with her and her office at Time Out Pizza. After Elaine, her BBF, made sour cream pound cake so we ate that at her office. The boys loved Roger's golf theme, her boss. He even had the little golf holes and balls. I love the wall of old golf clubs.
We were having a surprise b-day party for Mom on Saturday, so we still had to play it off on her real birthday. We, as in Mom, Pop, Milo, Melanie, LaVoy, Alan, Grammie, Matt and I all went and ate at Moses Pointe. Then we went and ate cake at Mom's. While talking with Pop I decided I could make a cake since I made the boys'. It didn't turn out quite as well without Mom's directions. I even ended up making a spelling error.
Milo being Milo! With hair!! At work he dress up in 70's theme. I'm sure it was quite the sight!!
Quinn became best friends with Macy while we were there. That morning he was trying to get Macy up in the chair with him...it was pretty cute. I never want a dog though!
Friday night we went to my in-laws just as the sun was setting. They have such a beautiful view with the lake.
On Saturday Mom wanted to have a picnic with all of us at the park. It ended up being so cold...I think Mel said 45^...brr!! There were so many leaves and the kids totally loved throwing them everywhere. I was able to get some fun pics of them being kids.
Kathryn is the perfect subject. She is so willing to have pictures taken. I think she's probably the only one out of all the grand kids.
We were attempting a shot with the kids, Malcolm got leaves down his shirt and was pouting, and Mason just didn't want to do it.

This is probably the better of all the shots...without Malcolm of course.

Milo tried throwing the leaves on them...they loved it!

Then all the kids started throwing them at each other.

That night we had a surprise birthday party for Mom. All her kids were there except for Leisha who just had a baby and lives clear across the country. Out of Kenneth Bushman tradition, we made a crate paper door she had to break through.

The kids all thought it was great and helped her out.

We had a Costco cake for her and they actually did black balloons, but look at how huge the "mounds" were. We couldn't help but cracking a few jokes about that. Love the candles!!

Mom being serenaded by all her loved ones with "Happy Birthday!"

The best part of the birthday. We made a book for her through mypublisher.com. Her parents, Pop and all us kids submitted pictures and "letters" for her. As soon as she unwrapped it she was crying. It was so nice to give her something so memorable and let her know how much we love and appreciate her!
These, of course, were suppose to be for her actually birthday, but thanks to me, none of that happened on the right day!

26 Weeks

26 weeks...14 weeks to go!! I hate the downhill slide. It's the worse. You keep getting bigger and more uncomfortable. Then I'm just so anxious to have it all over with!! Not much is changing...just my belly size. I was small for so long, and now I'm just growing huge. Oh well. I love physical therapy!! I recommend it to all. He always makes me work out a ton, and then I'm tired because I always work out before going. Today He made me work out more then usual, my back feels really tight. I know it will make me feel better though.

Sad Days!!

I know everyone will laugh at me, and I don't know how it happened so easily, but I deleted my blog. Not on purpose of course!! I was really near tears, everything that I have written about since March is lost. I of course have all the pictures, but I've lost all the "memories", my family journal. At the end of the year, I was really hoping to make a book from it. I was very frantic and can't find out any way of retrieving my blog. I tried contacting blogger, but no one has emailed me back. I've figured it's a lost cause. So I thought I would be able to use the same address since my blog has been deleted, but it won't let me so I've totally had to get a new URL too.

So what really happened is after I had my blog I signed up with a Gmail account. Well I never liked it, never used, and wanted to delete it. So I guess I was just in a hurry when it happened and I thought it was telling me that I wouldn't be able to access some things with that email address. But this is really what it says, " You are trying to delete your Google Account which provides access to the Google services listed below. Please check each box to confirm your understanding that you will no longer be able to use any of these services and all information associated with these services and your account will be lost." I thought I was just doing Gmail stuff, that's where I was told to go to delete the Gmail. But don't ever try anything like this. Not that anybody would because they aren't as dumb as me! Next time I'll read instead of scan the words! Now I realize that I actually clicked the wrong link and went to the page to delete my whole Google account and not the link to delete only the Gmail account. How sad that they don't give you warning that you are totally deleting you blog...they should!!!!!!!

So I found some of our posts by googling them....thanks to Matt and Nate! Their the brains!! We figured it out in a tricky way. So I can recreate some of my old posts...but mostly only back to the summer. I'm happy to have some...but I'm really sad about the rest!

The Tale of the Fighting Knight and Dragon

Matt took these pictures of the boys last week. When I saw them I just thought it was so funny to see the fight in action. For Halloween Malcolm is suppose to be the Knight and Quinn the Dragon...but since Quinn has been having a hard time with it, Malcolm is trying to get him excited to wear it. We've been forcing Quinn to put it on, I know mean, and he has stopped crying when it's one. Well for the most part. Since we spent the money on it, I can't see wasting the costume!

So, here's the tale...

The Knight!

The fighting Knight!

The Dragon is summoned.

"Fight me Dragon!" says the Knight.

The fight begins. These are in sequential order 3 frames per second.

The Dragon fights back.

The Dragon is Down...

...wait, he will fight again.

He has the Knight's sword!

The Dragon is defeated.

The Knight tries to keep him down.Truce!

How funny! I love when Quinn is on one knee with the sword over Malcolm! I'm sure that was just coincidence! The ways of boys are so cute! Boys are so funny they have to act out everything they see. The things that go on it their minds.

25 Weeks

Okay, so I already got tired of the same shirt. Maybe I'm just tired of seeing these pictures of me. I'm starting to question if this was a good idea or not. When I look at the pictures I feel so much bigger then when I look in the mirror. What's up with that!?!

So I'm not anemic. That's good...although I wish I didn't have to crave ice. After not craving it for so long, it's such an annoying habit. Physical therapy is really helping my back. I cleaned my house on Saturday and didn't have any back pain. That's good, I usually feel that even when I'm not pregnant. I'm only going in once this week, and if it continues to go good, I won't have to go anymore.

I'm going on my 3rd week of doing "The Firm" again. It feels good to start my day that way again. I could never get up at 6am, but for some reason I can do 6:30am. I've been walking since being home, but I just like to feel like I'm maybe keeping some of my upper body muscle, even if it's not much. I'm hoping to keep up the 3x/week "Firm" workout and at least walking the other days. So far I mostly just keep walking as I usually have! I guess we'll see how huge I get before I give up! I'm hoping I won't.

Falling For Apples

Wednesday Malcolm's class had yet another field trip. I swear there has been only one week so far that they haven't had one. This week they went to the WSU Orchard. (It's very, very small compared to what I am used to!!) They learned about the apples and how they are stored and when they harvest and such. Right as we got there it started raining!! Malcolm, of course, forgot his hat and gloves. I had reminded him over and over before he went to school. Luckily I took Matt's scarf and put it around his head.

So here's a picture of Malcolm picking an apple. They were able to pick a red delicious and a golden.Malcolm and his friend Georgey, the blond, followed each other around most the time or were holding hands...they are so cute!I let Quinn pick his own apples too. He tried for the ones that were to tall for him to pick.He has an apple in each of his pockets. He was so excited!!WSU is building a new golf course and the grass is starting to come in. I loved the scenery as we were walking down the hill!

For Your Eyes Only

I love my boys' eyes! I don't know what all it is that I love, but they are just so big. They don't even have a color that I just love. (I've always wanted blue eyed babies. Mostly everyone in my family has blue eyes, I'm just one of the few who don't.) But I do love their eyelashes!! They have beautiful long eyelashes. Especially Malcolm's who are really thick and long. I love when he's sleeping and his eyelashes are on his cheeks. I'm afraid if I ever have a girl she will be deprived of this quality. Maybe it's the innocence that I see in them, but I just love to look at the eyes of my babies.

Weekend Fun

Friday Matt's parents decided to make a quick trip down here. So we were able to have some fun with them for the short time that they were able to stay. Friday night we had plans with some friends having a Nintendo WII party. We went up to the school and played it on a huge projector screen. It was quite the set up. Merle and Cynthia came and joined us there.

Quinn is suppose to be a dragon for Halloween. Malcolm is going to be the Knight. Well Quinn is a little scared of his costume. He's fine seeing it, but it's scares him to put it on. We had to show the grandparents though...he still wasn't enthused!!See how happy he is when he gets to take it off. I'm not sure Halloween is going to be a big hit with him!!On Saturdays Malcolm has soccer. It's not teams...it's teaching them the basics of it through fun drills. He thinks he is pretty cool stuff though. Here he is trapping the ball! Sometimes he still has a hard time remembering no hands in soccer. All these different sports can be so confusing.He doesn't quite understand to kick the ball with the inside of his foot yet either. He always tells me he likes to do it with his toes better.Luckily Quinn doesn't quite understand that he doesn't get to really be a part of the "team". He enjoys doing his own drills on the side lines. He really is quite good, I wish he was old enough to do the same thing.Saturday ended up being such a beautiful day. I didn't even need a jacket, it was great. We took a walk on a little trail downtown by where we used to live. Fall is one of my favorite seasons with all the changing colors!! (I'm sure it started as a child with the reminder of my birthday coming.)
This summer Merle started teaching Malcolm about identifying a tree by it's leaves...so that's what he's doing here. Cute picture!We took the walk so Matt could show his Dad this awesome little rock waterfall. It was built just right on the natural rocks that existed, and just pours down on the side walk...very cool!The boys enjoyed playing in the water. I think this picture is fun focused on the water with the kids in the background. If only the building wasn't there blocking all the autumn leaves!!
At the WSU Turkey Orchard, they were having a Harvest Celebration. You could go pick your own pumpkins (Malcolm with his). There was also a hay ride around the little patch, hot cider and face painting. We ended up only picking pumpkins and didn't stay long.
The last thing we did before they had to leave was go to this beautiful park. There is this pond where you can feed the ducks. Someone also has a little pasture with some animals right by it too. We also fed llamas, pot belly pigs and sheep. They all love cheap bread!There's also a really fun park that we played on until it was time to leave. Cynthia is such a nice grandma and goes down the big scary slides with the kids...once she convinces herself she can do it! We had a fun, fast visit from the grandparents. Who doesn't like having visitors!!

After Quinn's nap I finally broke out the clippers and gave the boys haircuts. Malcolm had one a month ago...but Quinn I dread doing, so he was long overdue. It's such a sad fight to get his hair done...and looking good, but he looks so much better afterwards!I totally have to document how cute Quinn is talking right now. One of Malcolm's favorite primary songs is "Follow The Prophet", he only sings the "follow the Prophet, follow the Prophet" part over and over. Apparently Quinn has picked up on this. As I was cooking breakfast Sunday morning he was standing on the kitchen chair "singing", if that's what you can call it, "follow the Prophet" over and over again. I was on the phone with Mom, and as soon as I tried asking if she heard it, he knew he had been caught and stopped. Then later he was sitting coloring his superhero coloring book singing, "dah dah dah dah batman"! He is way to cute!!