Our little Genie Friend

Morgan's school just finished up with their school play.  Aladdin Jr!  It was amazing!  

Morgan was a Genie Friend and had such a great time being involved.  She had to wake up early twice a week for practice, but I think now that it's over she's happy she did it.  

She is the cutest!

Some action shots...

A quick picture between scenes…  I think her favorite part of the experience was all the make-up she got to wear during the performance :)  

She was adorable!  But I am really glad to have all the morning practices over with.  It was wearing me out :)  

28 Week Belly!

Here's my belly in all it's glory!

I usually take a belly shot every 5 weeks to track my progress, but this time around I just haven't… 

This baby is getting big - already about 2 1/2 pounds!!  

Being pregnant is hard.  Really hard.  Esp when you have 4 other little people to constantly keep up with, but it's also one of the coolest things I'll ever experience.   It's crazy to me that there is a human being growing inside of me.  I love feeling her squirm around and reminding me that she's in there (even though most of her squirming is at night right when I'm trying to fall asleep).  It's fun that she's big enough now that the kids can feel her move.  They all love to take turns putting their hand on my belly to feel her kick around.  They esp like when they can see my shirt move around as she kicks and moves.    I read somewhere recently that one of the greatest things you can give your children is a sibling.  I totally agree!!!   They already love her as much as Mike and I do. 

Less than 11 weeks to go!!  We can do this!   

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

I feel like Saint Patrick's Day always sneaks up on me.  I'm all for wearing green and having a reason to buy chocolate treasures, but every year I find myself scratching my head and asking myself why we celebrate it anyway… Then I have to google it so I can have at least some kind of answer for the kids when they ask what it's all about.  (I'm sure I'll have to look it up again next year.)   

We did have a leprechaun come and leave us a little treasure hunt to find a pot of gold.  

It was great motivation to get all our chores done before school…. No treasure hunt until everyone has practiced piano, cleaned rooms, and is completely ready for school.  I've never seem them fly through their jobs so fast :)  

The leprechaun left a bunch of clues around the house…  

While they were searching for the next clues, the leprechaun sneaked into their rooms and hid a little treasure on each of their pillows.  A chocolate money bar, some gold nuggets, and some green clover necklaces to wear to school.  

Meg made her bed so cute!   

Will was totally baffled at how the treasure got to his bed.  He kept saying "I just made my bed and it wasn't there".  Those sneaky little magical leprechauns!  

Chocolate always makes Morgan happy!  

Nobody's pinching my little monkeys today!  

Best Buddies!

Mike took this picture early one morning before sneaking out to work…  It's one of my very, very favorites!!  

The night before we had a terrible wind storm that woke these two up and they crawled into bed with us.  Let's be honest, Meg does that every single night around 3 am, (so this wasn't unusual for her), but it was extra sweet this particular morning because Will was all snuggled in with us too.  

You can't see it because Mike was taking this in the dark and he couldn't tell where the camera was aiming, but Will's arm is around Meg and he said it was the cutest!  I'm surprised the flash didn't wake any of us up…  I'm out cold next to Meg and I had no idea he was taking this….  I guess I've gotten used to sleeping through Mike moving around in the morning :)  

These two play so great together during the day.  Will is good natured and kind and I LOVE that about him.  He's just like his daddy!  No wonder the girls in the house love being with him!

Check out their version of Summer Olaf.     

Best buddies!  I love them to pieces.  (Even Will, who thinks potty humor and pretending to pick his nose is hilarious.)  

Jazz Game

Miles has been playing Jr Jazz again this year.  He loves it.  Especially since Mike coaches the team.  After the season is over, the team gets to go see a Jazz game together.   Miles' team only had part of the team show up for the game, so our entire family got to go with the extra tickets.   We hurried and found some friends that could come last minute and off we went.

This is what having 10 kids would feel like….  We kind of liked it :)   

The boys…

The girls...

Nathan bought these humongous blow up hands.  They were a crack up…  

Will says, "what did you say?". 

Even Meggie loved it.  She sat through the entire game just great!  It's going to be hard to go back to the baby stage where you spend most of your time in the hallway for things like this…  Oh well, that stage doesn't last long (and you're in the hall with a cute baby so it's totally worth it!).  

GO JAZZ!  

She calls it "The pop-it nest"

It started out as "the papa-nest", but in typical 3-year old fashion, she has started calling it something cuter.... "The pop-it nest." 

Whenever Daddy is home and Meg wants a nap and to cuddle with him (usually only an option on Sunday afternoons) she says, "daddy, can I get in the pop-it nest?".  Of course it melts Mike's heart and he gives me the haha-she-wants-me-and-not-you smerk and takes her little hand and off they go.  

Meg grabs a pillow, blanket, and some sort of iPhone or iPad, and settles into the pop-it nest.

That lasts for about one episode of Olivia or Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood and then she's off to sleep.  (That's how she falls asleep too, all dainty like...  I didn't move her or position her hands at all.  It's so funny how girly my girls are and how boyish my boys are starting right at birth.)

Sometimes Mike can't move for a long time depending on how long of a nap she takes, but no matter how uncomfortable he is, he stays still and let's her nap in the comfort of his little nest.   He is the best papa there is!  

Miles is now a bear...

Miles earned his wolf.  Woohoo!  He's moving on to bears. 

I'm not super excited about the years of scouting that are ahead of us (because let's just be honest, it's just another thing for me to track and have to keep on top of) but I do believe Miles will learn some great things and be a better young man because of it, so for that reason, I'll smile and push along.

That and because he looks pretty dang cute in his scouting shirt :) 

One of the ways Heavenly Father show us he loves us is by putting all these programs in front of us to help us along the way.  It may be a pain for me as his mother, but if it's helping him and is teaching him to make good decisions, there isn't a better use of our time.  (I have to keep telling myself this :)