in which mom tries to make up for being pathetic and pregnant

Things have been a little crazy around here over the past few months. This pregnancy has been harder on me than my first two pregnancies were (maybe it's a girl?), which means that my husband, kids and house have had to suffer through more than their fair share of neglect. Sometimes it even started to resemble Lord of the Flies around here. Scary, I know.

So, when I woke up feeling pretty good a couple weeks ago (yes, we've got a major blogging delay going on here), I had to take advantage of it. My first inclination was to tackle the funky nasty mess that our house has become, but I decided instead to whip up some fun for the boys in hopes that they'd forgive me for being so pathetic lately. I think it worked.



First, we made some tissue paper collages. The boys had a blast tearing up the tissue paper and then sticking it to the contact paper that I'd taped to the wall. Contact paper is great for making collages with little kids because you don't have to worry about them smearing glue Heaven-knows-where.









This is the finished product. It looks really cool when the sun is out--promise.














Next up, we made Super Foam-erators. Basically you cut the bottom off of a plastic water bottle, cover the resulting opening with a damp piece of terry cloth (I cut up an old dish towel) and secure it all with a rubber band. Then you dip it in some bubble solution, blow through the top and find yourself with some super cool, super long foam snakes. This would have been lots more fun outside but it was cold and rainy. Would probably be fun to do in the bathtub too.






And finally, the winner of the Sweetest Kid in the Universe award: Daniel. Every Saturday, the boys take turns going on an outing with Joe, we call them turn outs. It's something Joe learned from his dad and the rules are pretty simple.
#1- kid gets to choose the activity.
#2- no distractions (i.e., no radio, cell phones, etc.)

Lincoln usually chooses to go on a bike ride with Joe and Daniel usually chooses to ride the bus and go to the "candy store" (the candy counter at the BYU bookstore). But a few weeks ago, when Joe asked Daniel what he wanted to do for his turn out, his reply was, "Go look at flowers and bring some home for Mama." This was completely his own idea. When they got to the store, he insisted on buying blue flowers, to match his blue eyes (which are still a very vivid blue), so I ended up with some lovely delphiniums and a rose that had been spray painted blue. Is he a Ladies' Man in the making, or what?!

back in the saddle

First of all, happy First Day of Fall!! We've been blessed here with some deliciously cool and cloudy weather in honor of the occasion-- bring on the hot cocoa...

I'm excited to announce that I'm finally getting back in the doula saddle. (if you've never heard of a doula, click here) I've just been hired by a delightful couple and am anxiously awaiting their call to tell me that baby is on the way. I took a yearlong hiatus from attending births while we had Lance with us and have missed it something awful. Anyhow, just so ya'll know, (in my very biased opinion) doulas are fabulous. See for yourself:

Numerous clinical studies have found that a doula’s presence at birth:
tends to result in shorter labors with fewer complications
reduces negative feelings about one’s childbirth experience
reduces the need for pitocin (a labor-inducing drug), forceps or vacuum extraction and cesareans reduces the mother’s request for pain medication and/or epidurals

Research shows parents who receive support can:

Feel more secure and cared for
Are more successful in adapting to new family dynamics
Have greater success with breastfeeding
Have greater self-confidence
Have less postpartum depression
Have lower incidence of abuse

Spring Baby

The results are in aaaaaannnndddd: Hadfield 3.0 is officially expected to make it's appearance around the 18th of March, 2009. We'll keep you posted.

goodbye summer!

Once again, much has happened since my last post. Here's a recap:

We went camping with our ward and the boys managed to get this filthy after only 15 minutes of being at the campground:

The boys have been working hard and saving money all Summer to earn enough money to buy a two wheel bike. They found themselves an $8 beauty at DI, gussied it up with some $9 training wheels and were off...

Daniel became an expert in the "art" of mess making. He created this lovely disaster in the 5 minutes it took me to run downstairs and change the laundry. (it was also on the walls, curtains and bedding, but I couldn't get it all in the picture)

We had ourselves a fabulous labor day thunderstorm. "Tut tut, it looks like rain..."

1+1=3

Well, this probably isn't news to most of you, since we're (mostly me) terrible at keeping secrets, but we're expecting Hadfield version 3.0 in February or March of 2009 (we'll get back to you later with a more accurate due date).

Which means it won't be long before I look like this (that's Lincoln in my belly, by the way):

























And not long after I look like that, we'll have another one of these (again, Lincoln):

new best friend

I just found a new best friend. Okay maybe not, but I've definitely got a new favorite blog. I wish I was this funny and talented and cool...

in which we unwittingly enter the county fair and rub shoulders with real cougars

NEWS FLASH!: Our grapes won first place and the boys earned $3 to add to their bike fund.

When we found out that our master gardener neighbor entered some of our grapes for the boys at the County Fair, we had to go check them out.



I tried to get the boys to look excited, but Lincoln felt more inclined to check out the conjoined zucchinis that had the spot next to our fruit. It would be kind of weird to win something since the boys have never done anything to help grow the grapes but eat them off the vine when they're sweet and juicy, but it sure was fun to have an excuse to head down to good ol' Spanish Fork to check out the fair.



And what farm gal could resist a ride on this pink little lady? Just looking at it gave me a strange urge to plant some corn or something...


Tonight we made our 2nd annual visit to the Cougar Fall Sports Kick-off. This might very well be the highlight of the year for the boys.


There was free ice cream


And lots of opportunities for kids to be athletes. Lincoln ran the mini cross-country course 6 times.


And Daniel was thrilled to practice some football drills.

We'll be back next year!