Blessings today... I had my targeted ultrasound. I went into the doctor's office, and instead of seeing him and peeing into a cup, (all of that fun stuff...) I went to a different room where an ultrasound technician took a detailed look at Peyton. The outcome? Everything is perfect! Not a thing out of the ordinary... 167 beats per minute of that tiny heart, and that's perfect. Already showing the flexibility of her two older sisters by showing us that she is perfectly capable of sucking on her toe!

Another blessing... Original due date February 22nd.... May now be February 16th... Evan's birthday! We'll have to see what Dr. Bierer says about that one.

It was also my first 3-D ultrasound. I thought it was pretty cool. Merrill on the other hand thinks that it is only appropriate that they did it the day before Halloween... He thought it was creepy. I still made him watch all of it though!

Just trying to prepare myself for the hectic, yet fun day ahead of us tomorrow... thinking about that Snow White dress that needs a little mending. Believe it or not, I am thinking of trying to get some cupcakes made and decorated tomorrow too. Thanks mom, your delicious cupcakes have me longing for more...

Today was a fun day... after an interesting night of little to no sleep. Between Merrill and his sleeping sick sounds, Ashley whimpering in her sleep, and Lynn waking me up by pinching my nose to tell me that she loves me...
So a day with Grandma... It all began with mom trying to get a picture of all the grand kids, mind you all of their ages, 9, 7, one 4 almost five year-old, 4, 3, two 1 year-olds, and one little chunk of a 7 month old. So picture time was a blast. One adult with a camera and fie others trying to get all the little ones to focus on the camera and to get some resemblance of a smile. It's a first for mom. She has never gotten a picture with all of them. Ash asked her if they were going swimming. Mom was so happy that she remembered that. That was kind of the theme for the rest of the day, "I hope they will remember this!" She was so excited to have them all there.
The rest of the afternoon, they decorated cupcakes, ate lunch, played, and well, made a mess. At one point, she had one of the one year-olds asleep, was putting down the other one, when my dad called to see how the day was going. She loves it. Something that any other Grandma might not dare attempt, and she revels in it. I couldn't tell you how many diapers or pull-ups she changed, how many times she wiped a snotty nose, or broke-up a fight over a toy, I could tell that she was going to be exhausted, but she loved every minute of it. She was even preparing dinner for grandma and grandpa, and was still playing with the kids. There was one point when she had to chase a one year-old down the street, he saw a garbage can, and had the three year-old in tow. Meanwhile, four of the oldest were rolling down the small hill in the back yard. She came inside a little out-of-breath, and said, "I hope they remember this!" As the kids began leaving, she said that we were going to do this again, she had so much fun. We'll see. I bet she fell asleep during family home evening.
This is the contrast between the two "Grandma Worlds" my girls know. One grandma is like this... The other one buys. She isn't content with a backyard, imperfect picture. She buys coordinating outfits, and plans out the perfect holiday portrait. I am not saying that one is necessarily better than the other, but which one are the kids most likely to remember...

It's so much fun to see the different personalities in Lynn and Ash. I probably say it all the time... Tonight carving pumpkins just showed yet another side to that truth.

Lynn was a little grossed-out by the goop inside the pumpkins, while Ash loved it! She pretended like she was washing her hands in it, flinging it all over the table and floor. Lynn, at first, would only touch it if it was on a spoon in her hand. Soon, after Ashley started to fling it all over, I think, Lynn went and took off her tu-tu, then she got a little more "hands-on". She did that only while saying, "ew ew ew ew ew" the whole time. She washed her hands every other minute too. Ash dug in with both hands from the get-go, it took Lynn a little encouragement to just put down the spoon.

Merrill was in charge of opening, and most of cleaning. Because I am such a perfectionist at carving, I scraped the inside a little more, and carved.

We had so much fun picking out faces for our individual pumpkins. I drew different facial features to help the girls tell me what they wanted. Lynn knew what she wanted right off, though. Even that showed how different they are. Lynn picked classic scary Halloween while Ash thought "happy pumpkin" was the best choice. After a bubble bath, to get all the "ew" off, we took some pictures, and had some homemade cinnamon rolls, the frosting was so gooey that we dipped instead of frosting. Yum!

We can hardly wait till the big night comes! And did I mention all of those seeds....

Today we were kind of lazy... like every Saturday you could say. We did a lot of playing. The girls seem to love having pillow fights with Merrill, they never get old. The normal every Saturday stuff: dishes, tidying-up the house for Sunday, laundry, last minute errands for Sunday...

Today we added one more fun errand to get ready for Sunday, we went to get pumpkins! Every year, we carve at least four, and roast all of the seeds. They are one of those treats that come only once a year, they are fun to eat! (They are real fun to digest! Changing all of those diapers never gets old...) Hopefully we'll get them all done tomorrow, maybe on Monday for family home evening. The girls get to spend the day with Grandma and their cousins Monday doing some fun Halloween stuff. A day with Grandma is a real treat, it doesn't happen that often. I don't know how excited they will be to carve pumpkins after spending a whole day doing similar activities. I was just thankful to have a good Saturday so I could take some pictures, no matter how goofy my subjects were being. The funniest was watching Ash there, trying to pick up all of the straw and placing it back on top of the bales that were scattered around the patch! She felt like the ground needed to be clean. She kept telling Merrill to stop the wagon so she could even get straw out of it and put it back where it belonged before we left. She cracks me up. Lynn, of course wanted the smallest, roundest pumpkin. It needed to have a smooth, heaven forbid a bumpy appearance. She also looked for one with a "cute" stem. She picked up about four different pumpkins by the time she had finally settled.

I can admit that this was the FIRST year we actually went to pick them out... every other year, we have just gone to the grocery store and picked some up, none of the fun in walking around and actually choosing. It's safe to say, I think that what we did today will become our tradition. Now if I can just get Merrill to stop worrying that someone will come and get them and smash them in the street... I told him that he's no longer a teenager running around, so the possibility has gone down.

Tonight Merrill took Lynn to Frightmares, just the two of them. He's so good to spend one-on-one time with each of them. I know they love it. Ash and I just hung out. Did all the girls stuff like eat ice cream, find some fun movies, and gab. They each have such different personalities, it is fun to have them separate every once in a while, and focus on just the one.
Merrill and Lynn had quite the fun time. Merrill said there were people dressed-up there walking around, just like last week, and they were trying so hard to scare Lynn. No success. One guy gave up and said to Merrill, "She's really tough." It's funny that my five year-old was encouraging teenagers who were nervous!
They got home, we are all in our pajamas, ready to watch a movie. We are bummed because Blockbuster was out of "E.T".... I guess "The Wizard of OZ" will have to do.... I hope Peyton chills out soon. This girl is kicking so hard now, I can see my tummy poking out with every jab!

Okay... I'm blogging at almost midnight because I had such a fun day! I had to tell Merrill all about it before I sat down to get it all out again. I feel like a giddy school girl!
I just have to say how blessed I am to have friends that I do. My new counselors and secretary are so awesome. It makes me so excited, takes away that feeling of, for lack of a better word right now, ugh, that was coming with the everyday "stuff".
We had our first presidency meeting ever this afternoon, it wasn't really a meeting. We got so much discussed and accomplished, but we had so much fun! Our kids had a good time too. It is just such a relief to me to find other women who feel the same way that I do, and bring such fresh, new, great ideas to the table. Ideas that get me motivated. We got so much accomplished, I felt so good afterward. So after a fun afternoon, What could be better? Talking on the phone with them even when we talked for that long! See, I am a school girl!
We even had stake leadership, which was funner than I remember as well. I just felt so good having them there with me. I felt like I had "back-up". I just can't explain it... After the meeting we had some fun "Mommy time" with other sisters in our ward and neighborhood. It was so nice to sit and visit, and not have my cell phone even ring! It was relaxing. Julile didn't get to join us though :(...
After all of the hesitation I felt at the beginning of the summer, knowing what was coming and all the un-doing that had to be done to get this, I am so thankful. In a way, I want to kick myself in the butt... If I would have done it then, how much stress would have never even happened? But I can't think about all of the "what ifs". Either I needed something between then and now, or maybe someone else did... I can refer back to a previous day, and just say that I am blessed. Gosh, I am so thankful for these women!

Last night, (yes another prayer story...) Ashley was saying her prayer, she was praying for Peyton, how sweet! She said, "Heavenly Father, help the baby to come soon and help her to grow up just like me." When she finished her prayer, Lynn was mad. She had her arms folded, and the grumpiest look on her face. She stomped her foot and said, "I don't want the baby to grow up like Ash. I want her to grow up just like ME!"
They were so cute at lunch today, they were discussing Halloween costumes for Peyton for NEXT HALLOWEEN... she'll be eight months old then...
Ashley woke me at about 3:30 this morning. She told me that there was a monster in her room. She said, "I promise mommy, there's a monster in my room. Come see." And because it takes me longer to drag my pregnant butt out of bed, she had to tell me to "come on" again. Once we got into her room, I gave it the best look-over I could do being that tired. I told her that there was nothing, there never was, monsters are just pretend... I gave her a kiss and tucked her into bed. As I lay, trying to fall back to sleep, I could hear her fussing around. Then I heard her begin to whimper just a little. Soon she was at my bedside again. "Mommy, the monster is back." So I asked her if she wanted to snuggle with me. I got a tearful "uh-huh" in response. It made for an interesting night. But at least she slept, and so did I, kind of.
This morning I got the best surprise EVER... Lynn and Ash snuck downstairs and cleaned the playroom all by themselves! What sweet girls!