Help Please!

I had so many adorable girl names ready,but Brian and I both think Boy names are very hard to find. Please help with some input!!

This is what we have so far:

Will
Espen
Jackson
Potter

It helps if you say Taylor with it. Does anyone have good suggestions? We are excited to have another boy but not so excited about agreeing on a name!!!

Christmas Time?

We have had the weirdest weather lately and so it has been hard to let it feel like Christmas. My little sister Julie was here for Thanksgiving and on that Friday we were outside all day in short sleeves and no coats making marshmallow guns and playing at the park. It was like 70 degrees. Beautiful!!! but not conducive to Holiday spirit in my opinion.

We proceeded to put up the Christmas tree for Family Home Evening last Monday and after Brian had some egg nog it felt a little more like the Holidays to him but all I had was Christmas music to keep me going.

Last night we had the most wonderful Relief Society Christmas evening where we had a "Christmas Carol" theme. We had an ornament to go with each, past, present, future and had sister share amazing stories of past Christmas's, present (or current family traditions and what we can do now to feel the spirit of Christmas) and how to find JOY in Christmas's future. It was amazing and the spirit was so strong. Then I woke up this morning to find frost all over my deck and windows. It was such a wonderful experience. I feel like I can make this season wonderful no matter what the circumstances may be. I am so thankful to have such amazing influences in my life and such a wonderful family to share this happy time with! I am also Thankful to know the importance of the birth of the Savior and I hope with all my heart that I can portray that importance to my children so they may also love Christmas as much as I do.

It's A.........

BOY!

I do not know what to think! I was sure I was having a girl and I still can not comprehend that there is a little boy inside of me. I was in the mood to look a little sweet bundle of pink. I know that when my sweet son gets here I will love him to pieces. And luckily, from experience, I all ready know he will be dashingly handsome and adorable. I am lucky like that.

So here is the story for those interested. Callen woke up one night in the middle of the night and told me that he saw his little sister. he said he saw mommy's tummy cut (morbid, I know, that had to have been a nightmare) and saw his little sister. So right then and there, in the middle of the night I asked him what he wanted boy or girl and he said boy. Then I asked him what mommy was going to have and he said "girl" all disappointed. Every day after that if you asked him what he wanted he would always say boy but then say, "but it is a girl." how sweet, what a smart 2 year old! Brian also wanted a boy but thought it was a girl. And Addie of course wanted a little sister.

So we get to the ultra sound and the kids were very excited to see the baby on the TV. They waved at the baby and said things like " what is that, and where's the baby?" So when the technician saw the "boy parts" she pointed it out and Brian excitedly said, "You're going to have a little brother!!" Addie looked at the lady and very very distraughtly said"but I wanted a little sister." The technician had to turn away to keep from laughing and said, "that just melted my heart!" So Brian picked Addie up and she buried her head into his shoulder. She almost cried but she kept it together. she was very sad but also made sure to tell us that she still wanted to sleep in the same room with the baby and that she would still be a big helper! She is so sweet! Addie was clearly upset and Callen says to her very rudely, "Well, Sorry!" How does my two year old know how to say things like that, all snooty like! It blows my mind. He says the most random untwo-year-old like things that I have ever heard. He is funny. So we were all laughing.

So tonight we were saying prayers and Callen (again let me remind you he is only 2) says this very long, elaborate prayer and says, "We are thankful for our baby, my brother, Diego" and he look right at Addie. It was so funny. What a stinker! I also liked how he helped himself to naming our son. Of course Diego would be a great name right? It is still either Diego or Daddy in his mind as boy names. Addie doesn't really care to help find a name at this point. Her and I are both still trying to register that it is a boy!!!!!!

We are very excited!!

Now Callen can have someone to play boy things with. Sadly, Callen gets roped into having picnics and being "dad" all day and babysitting Addie's babies. It will be nice to have a good excuse to have more boy toys around. Now what to do with those millions of totes of girl clothes in the basement! hmmmm.... Save them for later I guess. At least I will be able to easily locate the boy clothes down there since there is only one tote!!! Anyway, that is our life right now, and we love it!!!

How do they know!

I was in the kitchen and happened to partake of a very yummy Halloween candy. Addie was in the living room (completely different room I might add) and she said.

"Mommy, what are you eating? I smell chocolate and......... a little bit of peanut butter, can I have some?"

What?!! How did she know I was eating a peanut butter cup? It is hard to pull fast ones on such smart kids!! I love them to pieces!

okay, okay, here is Halloween

Okay, okay, I will post about Halloween.

I fear I would look back and be disappointed if these cute kids did not have at least a picture to show for this Halloween. They kind of got jipped this year. I am not a huge advocate for Halloween anyway (expensive costumes, too much candy, no lesson involved) but I do love going to the pumpkin patch, carving pumpkins, apple cider, dry ice, cooler weather and thing like that. Because of my current pregnant situation I could not convince Brian that Going to a pumpkin patch would be a good idea and I can not just buy a pumpkin at the store. So we had to forgo all Fun Halloween this year. Luckily I do not think the kids even had a clue what they were missing because they are so young still. Thank goodness! Basically, we just went trick or treating. The kids did absolutely love it. Brian had them out for over an hour and a half with one stop home in the middle to scare mommy and dump out full buckets. They got SOOO much. And were so excited the whole time! Seriously!
My little Ninja and pretty princess!

(A borrowed ninja costume,thanks Kietra, and dress up princess dress, That is how it is done!)

It was a little cold on Halloween but that did not phase the kids at all!

The one thing that I could control was Addie's hair and it was so adorable and it had glitter in it, unfortunately you can not tell in any of these pictures. Oh well!

Here are three cute things the kids did do this Halloween.

1. They are at a cute age where they enjoy sharing their candy as much as eating it. Right when the kids got home for the night I had just run out of candy to hand out. We still had kids approaching our door and Callen had so much fun handing out candy before he left with Brian that he proceeded to take candy out of his own bucket and put it in the approaching kids buckets and saying, "Here you go, Happy Halloween!" It was so cute! Then I hurried and turned off our lights as quick as I could when there was a break in the kids!

2. Our kids are at the perfect age where all the candy they want to eat is the stuff like suckers, starbursts, tootsie rolls, smarties and things like that. They completely over look the good stuff. So every time we ask if we can have a piece of candy they happily hand us chocolate! It is awesome. I do not know how many years that will last but we sure love it right now. Addie looked in her bucket yesterday and said, "I can't see very much good stuff left!" I looked in and saw snickers, milkyway, butterfinger, and a whole ton load of chocolate. SCORE!

3. They are so good about sharing. They always take one out for them and one out for the other. It is very sweet. Their new game the last few days (so cute) is to unwrap a piece of candy and throw it across the room and say "go get it puppy!" and the other one will take off on all fours to get it. Hilarious! Then it is the other ones turn. Callen asked me to open a piece of candy and I asked him if I could have a bite and he said, "no, it is for my puppy!" as he turns and throws it across the room and Addie takes off. They are funny kids!

It was a happy Halloween at our house despite our lack of traditions this year. I guess any holiday is fun as long as you are with the ones you love. My family can make any occasion fun!!

YEAH BRIAN!!

We are so proud of Brian! He finished his very last class at Ashford University tonight. He submitted his final paper and we had a very joyous Family Home Evening with a very happy Daddy! He has been going to school full time for 3 years. One class would end on a Monday and the next one would start on Tuesday with only 2 three week breaks in one year. It was very tedious and exhausting for him. He stuck it out and we are very very very proud. He just has two electives left to take that he is working on through BYU and he should be completely done by December!!

I taught the kids what proud meant (at least I tried) and at FHE during Addie's turn for "say or do" she said:
"and we are very proud of daddy that he does his homework and we are very proud of daddy that he goes to work and we are very proud of daddy that he protects us when we are scared and we are very proud of daddy that he reads to us, and we are very proud of daddy that he loves us, and we are very proud of daddy that he writes on paper, and we are very proud of daddy that he goes to church" She had to say very proud every time. It was quite the speech!

the list went on and on and it was very sweet and tender. I looked at Brian and I almost got tears in my eyes. She had so much to say about him. I think she might have proud confused with grateful! She loves her dad so much! We did all stand around the computer as he pressed the submit button and we cheer for him. It was a great night.

HPGL

So I can finally reveal that Brian will be the new High Priest Group Leader in our branch. He is very intimidated and excited. He doesn't know what to do just yet since he is quite, quite, quite a bit younger than everyone else. that is okay. He is so wonderful that he will fit in just fine. He has had jokes in abundance about being old since he was ordained a High Priest! I think it is cute!

Yesterday we had a lesson on gratitude and it made me think of all the things and people that I take for granted. I have so many blessing all around me and I really have a fabulously wonderful life.

I am so grateful for such an amazing husband who honors his priesthood and leads, guides, supports, and loves this home. He takes such good care of me, especially right now when I really need some extra care, and of our children. He works so hard at work, school, home and still faithfully serves in whatever calling he is asked to do at church. He is such a wonderful person and a great example to me.

I am grateful for good friends all over the place who show love and support. I have amazing friends here in Missouri who have steeped up and helped me when I needed it and all the while making me feel wonderful and loved. Thank you so much. I have wonderful friends who live far away that constantly remind me that everywhere we look, no matter how far away, we have love and support. I love all of my friends so much.

I am blessed with wonderful, healthy children, a beautiful home, faith in my savior Jesus Christ, and amazing parents and family. I have all my needs met and I have my very very best friend to talk to every night. I love this time of year that help me reflect on these things and I know that I can remember them all year. I am going to take the lead of my cousin Michaelynn and try to focus on one thing each day this month with my kids to teach them how incredibly blessed and happy we are. I really need to teach them how blessed we are especially when we are driving in the car and have a conversation like this with Addie.

Addie: "why is that man walking?"
Dad: "maybe he doesn't have a car."
Addie: "Everybody has a car!" all matter-of-factly
Mom: "Not everybody has a car and we are lucky enough to have two cars, Maybe we should remember to thank Heavenly Father for the cars that we have."
Addie: "Yeah, that would be nice, that man should get a car." okay Addie!

We certainly are blessed so much!

p.s. For some reason I have not been in a picture taking mood, so sorry about all the lengthy,non-picture posts. That will change sometime!!