About Time

 Well I just wanted to put this picture in because I thought it was cute of the two of us.  We don't have many of these and we should have more. Anyway baby #3 is on the way!  We are pretty excited, but I haven't been as anxious about this pregnancy.  The picture below is actually from a few weeks ago when I was 16 weeks along.  I've grown a bit, but no new pictures.  We have our ultrasound tomorrow, but aren't finding out the gender.  Thought it would be fun to have a total surprise at the delivery.  I am due June 7th and am super excited to be pregnant at the same time as my sister Megan.  (due end of April) I do have Gestational Diabetes again with this one and so have been having fun trying to manage that.  It's hard to be pregnant and not be able to eat all the things you want to when you want to.  Other than lots of nausea my first trimester and some interesting pains throughout the whole time, this pregnancy hasn't been too horrible;)

Quickly Christmas

Just thought I'd share a little about Christmas...only like a month late.

 Lincoln had a Christmas concert at the school and sung a few cute songs. One of them was "Countdown to Christmas" and the other I can't remember the name of.  He had been doing the actions for these songs for weeks.  At the concert he did the actions for half of the first song and then just sung like this the rest of the songs.  At least he was singing.

 I took a few pictures of their Christmas outfits.  These are two of my favorites.  I can't believe how grown up they look.

 Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve. This is one of my favorite traditions.

 Each of the kids with their loot.

More Catch Up

Todd's birthday was on October 24.  He turned 28 this year.  My mom made a small cake because that is not really what he likes, but we needed something for the pictures.  We also had some cheesecake with cherries.

 These two wanted me to take pictures of them with their animals one night.

 Todd reads the kids a story at night about 75% of the time.  I do the other 25%.  The kids love story time and always ask for a story if we forget.

 For Halloween this year Mercedes was a bumblebee and Lincoln was Darth Vader.  We had fun trick or treating around the neighborhood and got way too much candy.  I think we threw away half of it about 2 weeks ago.

 Lincoln really loves to play board games right now and we had fun playing Cootie Bug one night.

 These are about the only pictures I took during Thanksgiving.  Megan and Bri and their families came out and we had a fabulous time.  We stayed up too late, we played a lot of games, and of course we went Black Friday shopping.  Fun, fun.

 This little girl is a Daddy's girl to a T.  She loves to give him all of her snuggles.

 One day I decided to have the kids help me bake bread.  I don't do this kind of fun stuff with them very often, but we can always improve right.  I am too afraid of messes and also it takes about 3 times as long as just doing it myself.  They had a lot of fun though, and it was neat when we ate it to be able to say that they helped to make it.

Figured it out!

After thinking about it for a little while and not wanting to pay for space on Google (yet anyway) I realized that I could probably sign in as Todd and use his space from his Google accounts.  So although these posts for the next little while will have his name they are all still being created by Katie.  Anyway I wanted to put some of these pictures up and I know it has been awhile since I took them, but I am one of those people that  can't move on until I've done each piece of the timeline.

 In October we had a lot of gorgeous and very warm weather.  We used one of those afternoons to rake up some leaves and have some fun jumping in them.  Well the kids jumped, Todd and I raked.

 They have a little swingset out front of our house that has given us many hours of entertainment.

 My two little cowboys.  Mercedes will not be called a cowgirl, whenever you try to tell her that she is a cowgirl she will exclaim "No, I a COWBOY!"

 Trying to take more pictures of myself with the kids.  I don't want to always miss out being in pictures because I don't have my hair done or I want to "lose a little weight".  I want my kids to see that we had fun when they were little and that I loved them.

 Another great day in October when we went hiking on the Loess Hill's Trails.

A Picture-less Update

I totally got motivated to blog today and got all of my pictures downloaded to my computer and then as I am putting them on here to make a post, blogger lets me know that I have exceeded my 1 GB of storage space. Boo! Anyway I will not be upgrading at this moment so what you get is a picture less update.  We have been doing good.  The fall has been a fun time for our family.  We played in the leaves a lot.  My kids had a blast with the raking and the jumping.  We played outside at our house and at Mimi and Papa's house as much as possible.  For Halloween Lincoln dressed up as Darth Vader and Mercedes was a little bumble bee.  They still have fun putting on the costumes.  My mom gave us a bunch of her old kid costumes and the kids now have a dress up box.  It has been fun.  For Thanksgiving, both of my sisters from Utah were able to drive here with their families.  So we had the whole Barrett clan together for a week.  That was fun and crazy.  We stayed up late, talked a lot, played lots of games (the boys played a lot of MW3), and ate way too much food.  We also did our Christmas gift exchange while they were here and we got some fun stuff from the Barrett kids.  Lincoln and Mercedes each got a Leapster (now they need games though) and Todd and I got a date night.  It is nice to get out without the kids.  This past Saturday we decorated our tree for Christmas and now we are all ready for Christmas.  Todd and I have been blessed beyond measure this Holiday season and I can't help but think of the Savior and how much He truly does love us.  In some ways these last few months have been incredibly trying for our family, but I daresay Todd and I have learned a lot.  We know that because of these trials we are being blessed to learn things we may not have learned in any other way.  We have a big, wonderful, amazing extended family that brings joy to our lives.  We wish we could see all of you more often.  We also have amazing children who help us see the bright spots each day.  We also have friends who we miss dearly, but have given us so many happy memories.  God bless each of you this Christmas and may you find time to help bless those around you.  

A Parade

My town does a celebration every September called "Popcorn Day".  They have a kiddie parade and this year I decided to do it with my kids.  The theme was "Hats off to Hamburg".  So with my mom I came up with the idea of  "You don't have to go to Disneyland to have fun...Hats off to Hamburg".  The kids wore their Mickey and Minnie Mouse sweatshirts we got from Disneyland and we filled the wagon with Disney stuffed animals.  It was fun.  And the kids won first prize in the costume section winning $5 a piece.  Nice for their piggy banks.

 Lincoln loves riding his bike and was good most of the time at staying close to me.  Good thing there weren't many kids in this little parade.

 I got to pull Mercedes in the wagon.

 Waving was not her strong point.  We had been waiting for 30 minutes at this point because of judging and check-in, so she was ready to get out.  Luckily Mimi and Papa got her to wave.

Fun With Cousins

 Megan and Alyvia came out in August for a quick trip for my Grandpa's funeral.  When they were here Mercedes and Alyvia played together a lot.  They are 6 months apart in age and are really starting to play well together.  

 They had a lot of fun in Mimi and Papa's yard playing with all of the toys.

I really wish I would have gotten pictures of Lincoln and Porter from when Porter was out here at the end of July.  When we lived in Utah Lincoln and Porter didn't play together very much.  Lincoln loved McKenna and would always play with her.  Well when she comes here she likes to play with the girls and so Lincoln gets a chance to play with Porter.  And he has gotten the chance to become great friends with Porter.  It is so fun to see them together.  They are crazy and silly together.