Pumpkin Patch

Friday afternoon I met up with my sisters-in-law and all 11 grandkids to pick out pumpkins. The kids had a great time running through the hay maze and then pulling carts around the patch until they found the perfect pumpkin. We had to sort out what was what before we went to pay since we had lots of helpers, but we found some great pumpkins and are excited to make good use of them this Halloween. Preston, Kylie, and Millie were so cute riding on Amy's cart together, but they barely fit on there by the time we were done loading it up with pumpkins. The weather was perfect and it was great for the kids to see each other. Aunt Amy was brave taking home three extra kids for a sleep over (which Dylan ended up coming home early from...he said he missed us. Who knew?). Anyway, here are a couple pictures from the pumpkin patch adventure. I LOVE FALL!

Train Museum

As part of our train unit (which is now a "transportation" unit) we headed to Ogden's Union Pacific Railroad Station for a field trip last Friday. I'd been a long time ago, but not recent and was pleasantly surprised. The boys had a great time climbing all over the trains outside. My mom and Tony stopped by in between soccer games and we grabbed some Subway sandwiches. Then we decided to go to the museum. They had been having so much fun outside that I almost decided to bag the museum and just call it a day. I'm so glad I didn't. The kids LOVED the museum. It was so much fun to watch them both run back and forth chasing trains and getting excited about everything they could touch and climb on and explore. What a fun field trip! We also got to see the Browning Firearms Museum and the Classic Cars Museum as part of our passes for the day. Super cool!

Random

Yet more pictures that I wanted to remember, but didn't merit their own post. Here we go...

Just a small glimpse of the semi-annual clothes disaster.

I got the boys' done in a couple days but am still working on Marissa's.

Seriously! How do people do this with more than three kids?

We have quiet time after lunch. It gives the boys time to chill and gives me time for myself to read, relax or get stuff done. It is also a really good way for Dylan to get in some reading time by himself since he is holding still and being quiet for an hour or so. I often find Preston asleep in odd positions when I go to get him of quiet time. This day he'd fallen asleep on the ground on top of the little changing pad I use to change his diapers. Quiet time has also been a really good time for him to poop without my knowledge, which has made the whole fear of pooping on the potty even more difficult. Oh well.

Tony holding Marissa at his birthday celebration at my mom's house

Oh this crazy hair! This is what Dylan looks like most mornings. His hair has become such a problem. People seem to have quite an opinion about it - they either love it or hate it - but it is definitely more work now that it's grown out a bit. Dang it! To cut it or not to cut it...that is ALWAYS the question. For now, we're letting him choose, but we shall see how it goes.

This is what general conference looked like at our house. Dylan found Marcos' ref outfit and walked around giving people yellow and red cards or flipping a coin and asking us which way we wanted to go. Preston spend most of the time emptying and filling his possibles bag (from our Mountain Man Unit) while wearing rain boots around the house. At least they were fairly reverent and stayed in the room listening for the majority of conference. That's all I can expect at this age I suppose. I was going to have activities for Dylan to work on, but it didn't happen in time.

My sweet baby girl! It's difficult to get a good picture of Preston because he is so quick these days, but he pretty much loves on that baby all day long. He is such a loving little guy!

Late Birthday Bash

Tuesday evening I met up with a couple friends, a much needed treat for me. My friend, Liv, lives in my grandma's ward. She had to work, but stopped by to see me and the kids after she got off. It was fun to chat for a bit and see her little boy, Soren, who will be two next week. Preston was a little nervous about sharing his Thomas trains when he realized Soren was interested in them, but as soon as it was HIS idea to share, he was really cute handing each train to Soren one by one.

Lisa got to my grandma's a little bit after Liv. We have birthdays that are 10 days apart and had decided we should get together to have a birthday celebration. Well, it took us a month and a half to actually get together, but it was so worth it. She is pregnant and due in a couple weeks so we figured we'd better make our get together happen if we didn't want to wait even longer. We all visited at my grandma's house until Marcos came to pick up the kids. Liv had to get Soren in bed so Lisa and I took off for our grand evening. We headed to Cheesecake Factory for some delicious food. As we were getting seated, I realized it was almost 8:00 already so I ran over to Nordstrom to get some lipstick I've been out of for awhile. I'm one of those people who only buys makeup every 1-2 years, but I'm picky about my stuff when I do get around to buying it. I found a color I LOVE and I'll probably stick with it for quite awhile. Anyway, I grabbed my makeup while she got a table and then went back to eat. We ended up sharing a pasta dish and a chicken dish. They were both DELICIOUS! We talked and talked and talked...just like old times. I love my friends! Lisa and I both moved to Pleasant View when we were 15 and have been best friends ever since. In high school and college, we were basically known as "Maria and Lisa" or "Lisa and Maria". I'm pretty sure there are many people who didn't know which one of us was which. :) Anyway, it's been more difficult to get together since we grew up and got married because she has never lived very close, but now she's in Utah County and I'm in Davis County so we can get together in Salt Lake (half way) once in awhile and it's not too bad for either of us. Anyway, she was the same old encouraging Lisa that she always has been. She has a way of boosting my spirits when I'm down and I will be eternally grateful for that amazing quality in my friend. She was always my fun, optimistic friend and I helped add balance to her spontaneous whims and added sensitivity to the mix. We really were such a good team...and still are in many ways. Anyway, it was so great to get together and stay up chatting until we forced ourselves to get on the road and drive our separate ways at 1:00 a.m.

Visiting GG

Tuesday we had devotional, got ready and headed down to my grandma's house for a visit. We stopped at my aunt's house to borrow some Halloween costumes and pick up produce and books and then headed over to see Grandma Betty. The kids were starving so we went out to eat at a fun little restaurant where 98% of the customers are over 65. Their prices are great though and the food is quite good so it is always a good choice when we go out. We went back to my grandma's and visited while the boys watched a movie. After that, I thought it might be nice to get them outside for a bit. We would normally be headed home by that time, but I was meeting a friend later that evening and knew the boys would need to stretch their legs and get some energy out of their little bodies. They had a great time digging through grandma's basically empty garage and pulling out tools, a dolly, broom and a bucket. Funny boys! They are so easily entertained. I thought it might make grandma crazy, but she was pretty tolerant of their rock loading, fossil digging and endless sweeping of the sidewalk. What a good day!

BYU

Last Saturday Marcos took a bunch of boys to the BYU football game. Now, this is an interesting thing to me. Both of us did our undergrad work at Weber State and then went to the University of Utah for grad school...but Marcos is a HUGE BYU fan. It was always who he cheered for as a kid and once a fan, always a fan. You do not trade teams. Anyway, our neighbors have tickets, but weren't able to go because someone was using their home for a wedding. So they asked Marcos to take their oldest four kids and a few friends. My nephew, Tony, was at our house when we were planning everything and ended up going with them as well. Marcos and eight really excited boys set out for the BYU stadium around 1:00 and returned some time around 10:30. Crazy boys! They had a blast and got some delicious Crown Burger food after the game. What a fun memory!

Treehouse Museum

Last Friday I took the kids to the Treehouse Museum again. I love having passes to a couple places...it makes field trips a little more affordable. We just recently finished our Native American unit (although there is some overflow of units because by the time we get some of the books other people had checked out at the library, we might be moving on to something else already). I decided to do trains next since Preston is absolutely obsessed with trains right now(which evolved into a "things that go - planes, trains and automobiles" type of unit). He carries his little Thomas trains in his batman backpack and loads and unloads them all day. Anyway, we sat in the teepee and painted on cliffs and played with trains....plus did a bunch of other stuff the kids love to do. Dylan LOVES the knight castle and Preston likes to dress up and build things. Lucky for me, they are in the same area. I took Preston to the bathroom (although not really...he's been saying he needs to go to the bathroom AFTER he pees in his diaper. Oh well, progress is progress). Dylan wanted to stay and play while I took him to the bathroom so I told him to stay by the music room. I came back and found him in the little chair reading a book about Abraham Lincoln. I'm telling you, that made me grin from ear to ear. Sitting there reading? A patriotic book? Yay!! He really is enjoying learning and it makes me happy to see him so curious and inquisitive about EVERYTHING. Here are a few pictures I took of our trip.

After we played for awhile we stopped by my mom's work. She is a teacher, but teaches junior high students who have been kicked out of their school. Right now she only has one class that goes half day and then works on teacher prep stuff in the afternoon so we were able to stop and see her at work. The kids played and Dylan did his reading to her. She hasn't heard him read out loud for awhile so I think she was pleasantly surprised at the progress he's made. Anyway, it was a really good day!

Surprise!

I put Marissa on her belly for a little tummy time this morning. She doesn't love being on her belly so it didn't surprise me too much when she squirmed around and ended up on her back. Wait a minute. What the...? There is no way that child is rolling over yet. So I did it again. Sure enough, within a few seconds, she was on her back. I finally decided this was a real thing, grabbed the camera and attempted to capture a moment. She was pretty tired by the third and fourth time around, but I managed to get it on film for Marcos and the rest of the world to witness the first day. Scares the crud out of me! Now that I'm on child number 3, I'd prefer for the milestones to hit a little later in life. Oh well! My baby rolls over now!

Preston's Pledge of Allegiance

Preston, Preston, Preston! Oh how I love this little monkey. He is mischievous and sneaky, quiet yet social, loving and tenderhearted. And he is a mystery to me most of the time. I try to teach him the way I taught Dylan and he just doesn't learn the same way. He doesn't answer my questions or repeat things back very often so I am left wondering where he's at and worrying probably way too much about the little tyke. But...he is doing so well. His talking and vocabulary in general has taken off since we started home schooling. We do a devotional every morning before school. We have a song, prayer, pledge and often sing a patriotic song, we look at the calendar and say what day and month it is and then find the weather on our weather chart. We read a chapter out of the illustrated Book of Mormon, a story from the Friend, and then work on memorization (Articles of Faith, a scripture, a talk for church, poems, etc.) Anyway, Preston is more of less just along for the ride at this point. I don't push him too hard, partially because he's Preston and partially because he's 3. He often holds the flag for the pledge of allegiance and usually puts his hand over his heart too. The other day I was waiting for Dylan who had decided he NEEDED something (story of my life) before we could continue. Preston was already up holding the flag and just started reciting the pledge of allegiance. It's amazing how much kids pick up just listening to and observing us. I had to get it recorded, but he doesn't cooperate very well. This is as much as I could get. Then I decided I should get him doing his ABCs too. He does actually know them, but got a bit confused during the recording. Funny kid! Also, if you haven't heard his voices, it gives you a brief look into one of the three or four interesting voices he uses. Why? I don't know, but it is so cute!

Updates

I realized just how many pictures and events I have failed to blog so I'm updating a little bit in this post. It's very random so hang in there.

Sound asleep in the Bumbo

I love Marissa's round bowling ball head with peach fuzz on top. In Spanish we call her duraznito or little peach. :) Preston had the same nickname for awhile, which his aunt Tomi gave him (and still sometimes calls him).

Preston couldn't hold on any longer. You can tell the kind of day he had had - popsicle on his chest, tools in hand, sound asleep leaning against the love sac. Poor kid!

Sweet Preston with goofy Dylan in the background

Making a human totem pole for the picture

Preston has the funniest fake smiles ever - he looks like a jack-o-lantern here!

We made totem poles during our native american unit for school

We dog sat for Alicia. This was Preston taking Belle for a walk on his trike....frightening!

We watch very little TV during the week now so we've started movie night on Fridays. We usually have pizza and watch a movie. The kids even get to stay up a little later than normal. Here's a picture of us chilling during our movie one Friday night. We've been reading a Junior Classics version of Oliver Twist at night and Dylan was pretending to be an orphan here in case you wonder what's up with his outfit and knapsack. :)

I love that little face! Marissa is starting to drool like crazy lately.

In the bumbo with her cute little booties.

Marissa is such a happy baby!

I LOVE this purple outfit with the hat - seriously we have been so blessed with hand-me-downs once again.

Even when she's not exactly happy, she's cute as can be!

I love this little girl!

Preston painting

Both of my kids LOVED painting

During our mountain man unit, we talked about Audubon and how he worked hard and faced lots of danger in the wild to paint real pictures of animals, and in particular, birds. Then we painted our own pictures. We are definitely lacking in the artistic department, but we had a lot of fun! Preston kept drawing a long, squiggly line going down and said, "I draw slippery slide, mama." So cute!

Mercedes, my mother-in-law, on her birthday. Preston had a fever so he and I were at home hanging out together.

Preston sound asleep the day he came down with a fever. We realized he had a fever during sacrament meeting. At least we didn't send him to nursery that way.

I LOVE the bumbo! Marissa spends a lot of her morning play time in the bumbo since it is usually right around breakfast time for the rest of the family. It's great to have her on the counter hanging out with us while we're cooking and eating. But when she's tired, she's tired. More times than not, I find her sound asleep like this and have to move her to the swing or bassinet for her morning nap.

This was the first time Laura, my sister-in-law, met Marissa. Her baby, Otis, had been sick so she had to keep her distance for a few weeks.

Abuela with my kids. Preston looks like he's a dinosaur in this one. Crazy kid!

I LOVE this picture! My little monkeys!

Abuela and Marissa

Otis and Marissa are only 2 1/2 weeks apart. This was the first time they met, although neither of them was very happy at the time. You wouldn't know it, but Marissa is actually the younger one of the two. :)

David and Marissa. Dave is Anthony's dad and will always be like family to us. It's a really special relationship we've formed with Dave and Anthony over the years.

Marissa sleeping on Papi's shoulder

The Museum of Natural History - field trip day with Papi

Otis' blessing day

My sister, Melissa, got married last Saturday. They had an intimate gathering at the country club to celebrate. It was a PERFECT day! My friend, Courtney, took pictures. There are just too many great pictures to choose from, but here are some to give you a feel for the day.

Major Mom Moment

This happened a couple weeks ago and I already shared it with several people, but it is one of those days I don't want to forget...and I'm sure my kids will appreciate reading about some day.

I got a call from my mom asking me if I was going to my grandma's any time soon. My aunt had a bunch of peaches and could get them ready for us if I was going down. I wasn't going down that week - I had planned to go the following week - but figured I could bump it up to help her out. It was a tough visit. The boys were a little restless and my grandma seems to really be going downhill lately. She didn't remember a lot of what I told her and was just having a hard time in general. It's part of life, I suppose, but is quite difficult for me to watch. I look at pictures from a year ago and there's a notable difference in her...and it makes me sad. I finished up my visit and then stopped by my aunt's house to pick up the peaches and hop on the freeway early enough to beat rush hour and get Dylan home in time for soccer practice at 5:30. I got home and started dinner when Marcos called. He was running late and asked me to get Dylan ready for practice and set out his coaching stuff. I was in the middle of cooking dinner, but figured I could throw Dylan's cleats and shin guards on him while I was stirring food. No sooner do I go to put his soccer stuff on (he can't get the shoes on by himself very well...in general he gets himself ready) than the baby starts screaming. I knew she would be hungry soon, but she woke up mad and starving. Crap! How am I going to finish dinner? I walked down the stairs to get the baby and saw Preston in the corner making a face like he was about to poop. Now, we've been working on potty training for quite some time now (not always actively, but still). Our biggest obstacle is getting him to poop on the stupid potty. So...I grabbed him to run up to the bathroom. I set him on the potty and yelled to Dylan to bring me the baby. I sat hunched over on the edge of the bathtub nursing Marissa while I "patiently" waited for Preston to poop. I finished feeding her and Preston still hadn't pooped, although I knew he had to go really bad. Honestly! The stupid phone rang and instead of ignoring it, I ran to grab it. Quick question phone call, but when I walked back into the bathroom, Preston was half-standing, half-squatting in the bathtub. How is it that pooping in the tub is less frightening than the toilet? Seriously! I quickly set Marissa down on the floor in the hall (I know, bad mom...I just don't worry about stuff like that), grabbed Preston and threw him back on the toilet just in time for him to poop...but only a little. We cheered and carried on, but he didn't go any more. But...now I had to take him to the dollar store to get the balloon I've been promising him if he pooped on the potty. Technically he did poop on the potty. So I finished making dinner, sent Dylan and Marcos off to practice, loaded up Preston and Marissa and headed to the dollar store. Holy cow! I was EXHAUSTED! All of this (from cooking dinner on) happened in less than 30 minutes. INSANE! We ate dinner, and started the bedtime routine just in time for Preston to actually finish pooping in his stupid diaper. Little stink waited for his diaper. Grrr... This motherhood stuff is definitely not for the faint of heart. :)

Two Months Old

Four days after her blessing, my little Marissa turned two months old. I took her in yesterday for her well check. These stats are more for me to remember down the road than anything else.

Height: 23 1/2 inches - 95th percentile

Weight: 12 lbs 13 oz - 90th percentile

Head circumference: 15 inches - 55th percentile

So yep, she's a pretty big baby...no surprise seeing how she started at 9 lbs 0 oz. I can't believe her height is so high though. If this keeps up, she's going to be tall for her age, just like the boys. The last few weeks, she's chunked out and looks bigger even to me. She must have had a growth spurt! I always think I'll miss the newborn stage so much, but I love babies and how they grow and start to interact more and more so I'm not having any "why is she getting so big" moments yet.

Anyway, here are a few things I haven't written down yet so I'm going to now.

• Her umbilical cord fell off when she was 10 days old. It actually fell off during her newborn pictures as I was moving her around all over the place. It may have taken a couple days longer had I not been messing with her so much.
• She smiled at me for the first time just before she turned 5 weeks.
• She slept "all night" for the first time last night (September 20) - from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. It's not something I necessarily expect her to repeat, but I was shocked when I woke up and it was morning already. Wa-hoo!

Marissa's Baby Blessing

We had Marissa's baby blessing last Sunday, September 12, 2010. It was a little weird because it wasn't a fast Sunday, but we didn't want to wait until October and the first Sunday in September would not have worked for a number of reasons. My sister-in-law, Laura, was blessing my nephew, Otis, that day, most of my family was out of town over labor day weekend, and another family in our ward blessed their baby and they have a HUGE family. There wasn't even a place for us to sit that week. So I'm glad we did it last week instead. The only negative was that we couldn't actually bear our testimonies...but that was okay.

Baby blessings are something you look forward to and dread at the same time (well, I do at least). The pressure of keeping a baby happy so she doesn't scream during the blessing, making sure she doesn't poop or spit up on her outfit, keeping the rest of the kids quiet, and planning and carrying out a get together for fairly big families is fun, but lots of work. We decided to have a brunch afterwards since our sacrament meeting starts at 9:00. It turned out perfect. I made a bunch of eggs for breakfast burritos, made bacon with brown sugar on it and got apple and orange juice. My mom helped out by ordering a bunch of cinnamon rolls and bringing sausages and chocolate milk. It was easy and super yummy! Thankfully my mom snuck out after the blessing to set everything out. That ended up being super helpful so everything was ready right when we got there.

The bad part was that Marcos had to work the day before so all the shopping, cleaning and other preparations fell to me and me alone. And then he had high council meetings in the morning. I honestly thought he was going to miss the blessing. I finally texted him at 8:45 a.m. to see if he was coming home. So much for taking family pictures before church. Oh well, at least he made it. The kids were well behaved and ready on time and Marissa was an angel. I showered the night before, knowing I would be swamped with a huge "to do" list in the morning so the only other thing I wish I could do over was my flat hair. :) Oh and I forgot to wash my favorite skirt so I was in a really comfy, but less than flattering skirt that day. Oh well, my sweet baby looked beautiful in the blessing dress Abuela made for her and that's all that matters!

The weather was beautiful, everyone chatted and had a good time, we were actually able to get a few family pictures (minus one of all the cousins...Dylan had already changed his clothes and I was exhausted by that point...oh well) and the blessing Marcos gave Marissa was beautiful. Anyway, for those who weren't there, I'm recording the official words of the blessing here for us to remember.

"Our Father in Heaven, in the name of Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Melchizedec Priesthood which we hold, we take this infant into our arms and give her a name and a blessing. The name by which this child shall be known on this earth and on the records of the church will be Marissa Nicole Uboldi.

Marissa, at this time, we give you a special blessing. We want you to know that our Heavenly Father loves you very, very much and he has sent you to the earth at this time for a very special purpose as many other children that are born at this time. Our Heavenly Father needs the most valiant children and the most valiant servants to work in his vineyard, to bring to pass much righteousness and freedom and to teach the principles of freedom to this country and to the world. You are one of those.

We bless you that you will know that you came to parents and two brothers and extended family and friends who love you very much and want nothing but the best for you. We bless you that you will know that Jesus Christ is your Savior, that you will develop a testimony of the gospel, that you will enjoy being a member of the church and serving all the days of your life our Eternal Heavenly Father. And that you will, as time goes on, grow up with strength and knowledge, that you will make correct decisions, that you will consult your Heavenly Father, that you will have the desire to one day go to the temple and also to be married to a worthy young man who holds the priesthood. We bless you that you will be happy and that you will know that you are loved. And we say these things and do so humbly in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."