for the quote board

"This dinosaur is NIMBLE!!"
~Daniel

the velveteen baby

Weird dream last night. Dreamt I gave birth to a baby doll with the understanding that once we proved we loved it enough, it would become "real", just like the velveteen rabbit. Fortunately, we proved ourselves pretty quickly, and the doll turned into a sweet little baby girl after only a couple of days with us.

I've been thinking lately about the differences in prenatal bonding with this pregnancy as opposed to the others, and I think that may be the source of this dream. With Lincoln, our first, all I could ever think about was The Baby and how excited I was to meet him. With Daniel I didn't think about The Baby all of the time, but I still found plenty of time to imagine him and wonder about what kind of little person he'd show up being. This time around, I'm so busy taking care of the boys and getting our house whipped in to shape that I find myself with very little time to sit around and just dwell on The Baby.

I figure I'll have plenty of time for that after the little one arrives. I plan on doing nothing but laying in bed or on the couch cuddling, snuggling, nursing, and generally just absorbing the babiness of #3 for the first few weeks. I'm seriouly looking forward to it. No guilt involved here, I guess my subconcious just realized that I'm saving up all my love and emotional energy for this little one when s/he arrives.

Speaking of dreams, I had one last week that the baby, a girl we ended up naming Maggie, weighed in at a little over 11 lbs., and in spite of that we had a piece of cake labor and birth. Heck, as long as I could be guaranteed a short labor, I wouldn't care if I had a 15 pounder, but it's probably more likely that this'un will be in the 9-10 lb. range like his/her brothers. I guess I've got a topic for my next poll...

for the quote board

"Lady guards us. At night when bad guys come, she bites them, and drags them in the house, and we cook them for dinner, no, breakfast!"
~Daniel

fresh ideas

I don't know about you, but this time of year, after what feels like the 500th consecutive day of being house bound due to bad weather or toxic air, I run plumb out of ideas on how to keep my kids occupied, entertained, and engaged. If things get really desperate, I'll indulge them in a mid-day bubble bath. Honestly though, kids can only take so many baths a day, right?

Needless to say, then, I was pretty darn tootin' excited to find so many fresh ideas at the mommy blog http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/. We haven't tried any of the suggested activities yet (gimme a break though, I found the blog last night after the kids were in bed), but first up on our list will certainly be iceberg painting: freeze a paint/water mixture in some ice cube trays overnight and let the kids paint with the colorful cubes.

I'm on the lookout for great activity ideas. What are your favorite resources (books, websites, blogs, etc.) and what is your all-time favorite activity for keeping house-bound kiddies happy?

Update: I stumbled across www.thetoymaker.com the other day and it made me SO happy. There are a ton of fun free paper toys you can print out and put together. Paper toys? Is that crazy? Nope. Sure, they won't last for more than an afternoon-- but a small paper car we put together a few days ago bought me two and a half hours of peace and quiet. The boys LOVED it. Must. Get. More. Cardstock!!

snow candy

This is a couple of weeks late, but what the heck: we made snow candy. For those of you who have never heard of it, it's basically boiled maple syrup that you cool instantly by pouring over fresh, clean snow. It is marvelously yummy and is hands down the best two-ingredient recipe I've ever made. Find the recipe at my craft blog.

for the quote board

Lincoln: "When I grow up, I wanna be a race car driver."
Daniel: "And I wanna be a race car. You can ride inside of me... I'll drive you to Aferca (Africa), 'cause I know how to get there."

baby name mania

So some of you are wondering what we're going to name this mysterious little stranger...

Here's the short list. I think this is as narrowed down as we're going to get-- we're going to wait to see what baby looks like and then pick one. Does this smack of a fear of commitment to anybody?

Girl:
Ella Mae
Jane Alison-- a sneaky tribute to my mom, who is Jan Alison
Margaret (Maggie)
Sally-- Lincoln and Daniel both favor this name, after the little blue porsche on Cars.
Ruth Ellen (Ruthie)-- this one is on my list, but not Joe's

Boy:
Webster-- after my great great grandpa Thompson
Harrison (Harry)-- after Indiana Jones (just kidding)
Willis (to be known as Will, but you can crack all the "Whatchyou talkin' bout, Willis?" jokes you want)-- after my great grandpa Weight
Lewis (on Joe's list, but not mine)
Jack-- after Joe's grandpa. This is a name we both love, but we're not sure we'll go with it since we already have a nephew named Jackson, and it's one of those super popular names already.

P.S. For those of you who missed our initial announcement, Hadfield 3.0 is expected to make his/her arrival mid-March. We're hoping for a first day of Spring baby.

boy or girl?

So, lots of people think we're crazy for waiting to find out the gender of this baby. That doesn't bother us at all, because we know for a fact that I, at least, am crazy. The jury is still out on Joe, but for the time being he seems quite sane.

But this does provide an opportunity for a fun little poll. We've set one up for you to make note of your guess over there--->

Let us know what you think. For the record, Lincoln and I think we're having a girl and Daniel and Joe think it's a boy...

4

Lincoln turned 4 on Monday. I can't believe what a grown up little man he's turned into. We tried hard to make it a special day for him and I think we succeeded because he told us later that it was the best birthday ever. We decorated the house with balloons and streamers, brought out the Crown Jewels (our family birthday crown), dad came home from work early so we could all go to the Nicklecade together, and we ended the day with a special birthday dinner of his choice (macaroni and cheese) and double helpings of chocolate cake with caramel icing. It was a great day.

The boys both had a crazy-fun time at the Nicklecade. So fun in fact, that Daniel kept trying to figure out a way to play the change machine.

holiday roundup

We had a fabulous Holiday Season this year. Christmas was wonderful; we spent a quiet Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at home and then headed up to Brigham City for some fun with the Hadfields. My sister Kaley got to spend a couple of days with us before heading on up to Rexburg to start her first semester at BYU-Idaho, so we got to spend New Year's Eve with her, my sister Erin, and my brother-in-law Alex. And let me tell you, we Weight girls know how to have a totally wild and crazy night. Well, we do if wild and crazy means putting on blue eyeshadow and red lipstick and falling asleep by 11:30... (in defense of my beautiful sisters, I think I was the only one who fell asleep)

The boys have spent a lot of time lately dressing up in the costumes that Santa brought. Daniel loves to be a mailman.

And Lincoln thinks that cowboys are pretty cool. Daniel would too, except he's having a hard time with the fact that they're called cowboys when they ride HORSES!!

for the quote board

"I think when I'm 11 I wanna start hanging from trees."
~Lincoln

for the quote board

Mama: "Daniel, you sure like to rhyme. Maybe we should start calling you Busta Rhymes."
Daniel: "No, Buster Duster Wuster!!"