Stitching..

 Look who picked up on some stitching skills last week.

He has recently made one that has a rainbow and a Christmas tree and uses it as a blanket for one of his stuffed animal puppies. It's so cute. I'm proud of this little man of ours.

Our little Sparrow...GLOW!

Emma's second grade class did their traditional "GLOW" performance. Emma was the Sparrow and she did SUCH an awesome job. I think she's a natural performer. :) There was speaking and singing.

The whole class did so great and the theme of the program was awesome. Everybody has talents and can contribute to this world.

 Our kids are so blessed to have great support from awesome Grandparents.

Opa was there. We missed Oma but she was in Germany.

 Grandma and Grandpa Phair

 Emma with her good friends, Fay and Courtney.

 Emma and her teacher, Miss Connell.

Friends movie night and St. Nicholas

 Yesterday for Emma and Thomas' advent calendar, they were told they could invite a friend over for a movie and popcorn night. They were very excited to invite a friend. 

Thomas invited one of his best friends, Gavin over. He joined us for some pizza, popcorn and movie.

 Cute little munchkins! They watched "Spot's Christmas" and "Frosty the Snowman"

 Emma's friend Courtney joined us later on that evening. They watched the "Barbie Christmas" movie.

This morning, we noticed that St. Nicholas had come and left the children some goodies in their boots. 

30 weeks and 6 days!!

I have not written much about this pregnancy with baby #4. 

This pregnancy has FLOWN by. Today I am 30 weeks and 6 days which is what I was with Joseph when he was born. Let's hope this little lady stays in the oven for a bit longer and not surprise us. 

My braxton hicks and cramping have increased quite a bit but I'm learning to recognize certain signs I had with Joseph just before he came and am learning to try and take it easy.

I have had to lay down a whole lot more as of lately. I have to lay down with the boys every afternoon after lunch for about an hour and then again at dinner time.

Sundays are my hardest days with cramping and exhaustion and also every evening.

It became more of a reality to me two weeks ago on Sunday that having meetings before church for my calling as Primary President, then helping get kids off to church, then having our three hour meetings are really playing a hand in increasing my contractions.

Derek has been so wonderful. He makes sure I lay down as often as I can. He works so hard and has also taken on a lot more load with house work, yard work, basement remodeling (trying to get a playroom ready before this munchkin comes), taking care of kids and me. He is truly awesome.

I crave LOTS of sweets. It's the greatest being pregnant during the holidays :) 

I have myself a bowl of cereal every  night before bed. I've kept stocked on Costco's dark chocolate and coconut covered almonds. :)......because I can. :) 

My cravings are all over the place. I don't have anything too specific, it just varies by the minute. :)

Emma loves giving me lots of hugs around my belly.
Thomas is always feeling my tummy to see if baby is moving. I think he is the one that has felt her the most. 

Joseph is oblivious to what is going on and what's about to change in the next months. (hopefully)

We still need to decide on a baby name. This probably sounds weird, but I still worry that this baby could be a boy and that it just wasn't read correctly in the ultra sound. Of course we'll be happy either way. 

This little girl is going to learn very quickly how to have patience with her Mama and rest of the family. It's a wonderful time for our family.

Thanksgiving 2014

A couple days before Thanksgiving, the children made thank you cards for their Primary teachers and we delivered them along with a treat.

Thomas delivering to Sister Butt and Sister Oleson

Emma delivered to her teachers, Brother and Sister Waters but I couldn't get a clear picture of her on the dark evening.

Thanksgiving morning with these cuties. It was the first year we had our very own Thanksgiving in our own home with our little family.

The children made cute little table displays to hold name tags as well as candy turkeys.

This is what our family room looked like all Thanksgiving day long. LEGOS, LEGOS, LEGOS! I had to lay down a lot through out the day because of on going contractions...but it was  nice.

Thank you to Derek for all the help in preparing the wonderful food. We made our very first turkey ever! :)

Grandma and Grandpa Phair came over later that evening and joined us on an outing to the gas station to drop off pies to the employees who have to work on Thanksgiving.

We ended the day with a fort in Thomas and Emma's bedroom where they slept that night. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am mostly thankful for this cute bunch I get to be with forever. I'm grateful for how patient and loving they are with me. 

At the beginning of the month for Family Home Evening, we put together a 'Gratitude Tree" in our family room and cut out some leaves to write things we're thankful for throughout the month.

Thomas started out that he's thankful for Jesus.

 Joseph is thankful for Prayer. During family prayer, he's always the first one folding his arms reverently. :)

 This was our tree by the end of the month. We do have so much to be thankful for.

Halloween 2014

 Meet the Winnie the Pooh family!

Kanga, Roo, Pooh bear, Owl, and Christopher Robin himself.

Another fun theme. We'll keep it going as long as it will last. :)

 

Oct. 24, 2014

Our ward Trunk or Treat. The kids had fun with their friends and eating as much candy as they could get their hands on. 

 

October 29, 2014

We FINALLY got around to carving some pumpkins! Joseph painted his and worked ever so hard on it. SO cute!

 Emma concentrating on drawing out her face.

 We were totally proud of the older kids and how they jumped in to carving on their own. 

Look at Thomas go!

 

 

Derek pretty much rocks at carving pumpkins. He was up until 3am carving these bad boys. It's his once a year thing where carving is more important than sleep. :) They turned out AWESOME!

Thomas went as Spiderman for his gymnastics class earlier that day. He really wanted a painted mask...so this is what I whipped up last minute. He liked it and that's all that matters. :)

October 31st, 2014.

 Emma's bus stop friends the morning of Halloween.

 I was able to come help in Emma's classroom Halloween party.

 Here is Pooh bear right before he left to Preschool. I could squeeze him.

Halloween evening!

 Let the Trick or Treating begin!

 Emma with Uncle Dylan, the Wizard.

 There he goes!

 The coolest "Frozen" house. So SO cool!

 After all the trick or treating and hanging out with at Oma's and Opa's, we headed over to the Beeton's to see cousins. Lucy was Audrey Hepburn :) What a cute bunch!