FINALLY!!

I swear I get worse and worse at blogging as time goes on. The past month and a half has been really busy with traveling and the holidays. I have far too many things to write about and a lot of pictures but I'll try to stick to the basics and keep it really simple (although I am always long-winded).

THANKSGIVING-

We got to go to Klamath for Thanksgiving and spend nearly 2 whole weeks with my family. Josh didn't get to stay as long but the boys and I got to spend a good amount of time with my parents.

Brad, Molly & Saige got to come for a few days of the break a well. It's hard to believe that my little niece is already 1 year old. She sure is a cutie pie.

The guys went cross country skiing, while us girls went to see "Breaking Dawn" (which I actually really liked- shocking!).

How can you resist such a cute face? She makes me so excited for baby girl to come (6 more weeks...say wha?).

We went to the church for Thanksgiving dinner and had all sorts of family there. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of anyone really. I did a horrible job & didn't take any family pictures during all of the holiday get-togethers.

BACK AT HOME:

We always catch the boys in funny sleeping positions and it never gets old (to me at least). I love seeing the boys together.

Shaffer has this obsession with these shoes. He begs to wear these specific ones all the time. One of my favorite pictures of him is when he was wearing his shoes while wearing his pajamas (the type with the feet). He is such a funny boy.

They built a new elementary school right across the street from us and we have had a blast playing on their playground. When the weather was nicer we would go over there after dinner and play until it got too cold or close to bedtime.

CHRISTMAS BREAK:

We divided up our time between my family and Josh's for Christmas. We spent the week before Christmas and then Christmas day with Josh's family and then headed to the Oregon coast on the 27th to spend a week with my family.

We went to the Newport Aquarium and the boys had a blast looking at all the fish. There were lots of great tunnels to run through that my kids loved.

My sweet nephew William! Jessica and William were able to come out to the coast as well. (Poor Rich had to stay home and work.) It was my first time seeing William and boy did I grow attached to this kid. He is so sweet and calm and wonderful. He is a very sweet baby.

It was fun to see my sister as a mom too. She is a natural and completely comfortable with her role as a mom.

Another picture from the aquarium. Kids could go through this small tunnel and then look up and it would put their heads right in the middle of the fish tank. My boys got a kick out of that.

CHRISTMAS DAY:

Like I said, I did a horrible job of not taking pictures, so this is the only picture that I have of the boys on Christmas day. Boo!

This was our first year of doing Christmas morning all on our own. We had a yummy breakfast, watched the boys unwrap their toys, and then we went to church with Josh's parents and spent the rest of the day doing things with his family. It was fun to see all the nieces and nephews with their new toys. Our kids are so lucky to have so many fun cousins to live close to.

Logan sporting his underwear. This was what he wore for nearly 2 weeks! We had to keep him stripped down to the bear minimum because otherwise he would have accidents. Thankfully we are (mostly) past that now. More on potty training later...

This year the guys of the family did a "Mancathalon". They had 10 (?) events were they competed and kept score and whoever ended up with the most points won a really awesome trophy! They did their traditional bake off (which was SOOO delicious and a huge sugar overload), racquetball tournaments, Don't Eat Pete, GKB (a pool ball game), Guess Who, etc....There were some really random events thrown in there but the best was the bake off.

When I was pregnant with Shaffer I remember saying that I'm sure things with the boys would often be like ice and fire. I knew they would be best friends and worst enemies. We lucked out for the first 2 years and they were best friends nearly 100% of the time. Our luck has since worn out and they are definitely proving the ice and fire theory correct. I would say that it's about 40-60 now. They fight 40% of the time and are best buds the other 60%. Maybe it's less than that...I'm not sure...but it's a whole lot more fighting that we are used to. It's sad to see them fight so much and for no reason whatsoever. Thankfully though they are pretty good at making up and can get over things pretty quickly.

We took a trolly ride around Thanksgiving Point to see the Christmas lights with Josh's family. Logan was soooo excited to see Rudolph (they had real reindeer there). I kept telling him that if he kept his underwear dry all day that he could go see Rudolph and that was one our first day accident free. He was a little disappointed that Rudolph didn't look like a cartoon (he was expecting him to look like he does on TV) but he got over it pretty quickly.

We have had so much fun over the holidays and are sad that they are over. I can't tell you how quickly it made the last 2 months of my pregnancy fly by. We had one thing after another to look forward to. It was nice to be able to spend so much time with both sides of our families- Rohat & Mortenson. As much as we will miss everyone and all the activities it's also nice to get back into a routine and let the kids settle down and have some consistency.

Now we are anxiously awaiting baby girl's arrival in approximately 6 weeks. I am guessing it will be more like 7 weeks because I won't be induced early this time. Most likely I will have to be induced but we're going to wait to see if I can go into labor on my own. If not then some time during 40-41 weeks I'll have to be induced.

As for other news:

POTTY TRAINING:

Like I briefly mentioned above we potty trained Logan over the Christmas break. To be completely honest. it was a nightmare! I don't want to potty train Shaffer or baby girl until they are 7 years old and are begging me to do so. It was all consuming and stressful. Not to mention I was hobbling around on one good foot the entire time (see below).

Thankfully now things are much improved. Logan does really well at night and except for the very first night has managed to stay dry every night! He hasn't had a potty accident in a long time and is doing really well that way. Going #2 is still a bit of a challenge but we're making progress and he is trying really hard.

PREGNANCY:
I am 34 weeks today. I have gained a total of 23 pounds so far and am hoping to keep it in control these last few weeks. I haven't taken any pregnancy pictures this entire pregnancy...but I think I'm about the same as I was with Shaffer.

I wasn't able to work out for a month because back during the Thanksgiving break I was in Medford with my family and I sprained my ankle/tore some ligaments that made it impossible for me to get around. I couldn't walk at all on it for 4 full days and then I limped around on it for about 3 solid weeks and then finally within the last week it has gotten MUCH better. I can still feel some pain but I am able to walk around on it and to do some light working out. It feels good to finally be back at the gym and to be able to get some exercise.

The Relief Society stepped in and brought us meals for 3 nights before leaving for the coast. I can't even begin to say how extremely helpful it was. It was a pretty stressful time with my foot being really bad and trying to potty train Logan at the same time, so to not have to worry about making meals for a few days was a HUGE blessing & a complete answer to prayer (even though I wasn't asking for that type of help).

Baby girl is getting really big and is moving around a ton. I'm at the point where when she moves around it hurts. It's always so fun to see her kick and squirm and to try to guess if it's an arm or a leg or what. I will try to post a pregnancy picture soon (although I'm past the small, cute pregnancy phase).