Luke brought this list of sentences home from school he wrote last week using his spelling words. I thought what he wrote for the first sentence was so sweet I had to take a picture to remember it :). I love little rewards for being a parent like this. All of the things he wrote were really cute.

Christmastime is here!

I wasn't able to do any decorating for Christmas this year since I am still on bed rest, but Cory and the kids did a great job taking over! Here they are decorating the tree. The house looks great and very Christmasy! 

Milly got groomed and we decided she looks just like Clarice from the Rudolph movie. 

We bought this blow up Santa to go out in the yard. The other night Cory decided to blow it up inside to test it out and make sure we wanted to keep it. It was enormous! It just kept getting bigger and bigger. We were laughing so hard. The picture really doesn't do it justice. 

Luke loves the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas. It's his new favorite and he's watched it over and over and over. He loves the music too (he's recording the "This is Halloween" song here on the phone so he can watch it anytime). We were kind of hoping he would be done with it by Christmastime (he's been watching it since Halloween) because it is a little creepy and we'd rather be watching cozy Christmas shows, but he's still on it full board!

While Cory and Halle were at the Jazz game the other night Luke and I had some "Mommy/Lukey time" as he calls it. We started out watching Nightmare Before Christmas but then I talked him into trying another Christmas movie so we watched Miracle on 34th street. We cuddled up and drank hot chocolate and watched the movie. It was a fun night!

Thanksgiving

We had a good Thanksgiving! We ate at Grandma Lori and Grandpa Sheldon's house. It was my first time going somewhere other than a doctor appt in six weeks! We had a nice, small dinner.  The kids had a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's house afterward. 

As you can see in the background, the kids did lots of fun Thanksgiving art projects this year. 

Grandpa telling the story if the five kernels of corn. 

Thanksgiving projects

Luke did some cute thanksgiving projects at school. These were two of my favorites he brought home. 

Thankful turkey. Each feather says something he is thankful for. He said: Dad, family, Luke, Ms. M (his Chinese teacher), Mom, Mrs. C (his English teacher). 

I thought this menu of what foods he would like on a thanksgiving menu was cute. He loves blueberries and raspberries so I think that's where the cranberries come from. 

Best buds

I've been meaning to post this pic of Luke and Brennan on Halloween. They had fun trick or treating together. 

A couple days later Luke went with the Daws and had his first experience being politically involved! He helped them wave signs for a family member who was running. They had fun!

Learning Chinese

Luke is in a Chinese immersion class in school this year. This means that half of his day he has an English teacher and they speak all English, and the other half of the day they have a Chinese teacher and she only speaks Chinese to them. They are learning so much already and Luke really likes it! He speaks phrases, words and songs all the time at home that he is learning and says that Chinese class is really fun. Both his teachers are really good and he likes his Chinese teacher a lot so I know that's a big part of why he likes it, but I also think he is really smart and he likes learning new things and being challenged. If he decides he wants to continue the Chinese program he can do it all through elementary school, which would be bear, he'd become a really good Chinese speaker! And if Halle does it they say they will have their own secret launguage. 

He brought home this assignment they did in class the other day and I thought it was really good. The symbols he draws look so good and the corresponding pictures he drew inside are cute. Very nice work, Luke! 

32 weeks!

Today I am 32 weeks along!!! 32 weeks was my doctor's goal for me when I was put on bed rest five weeks ago. Now every day we make it further is a bonus. This has been my view from the couch for the past five weeks, usually being cuddled by one of the kids, Milly, or all 3. So grateful we've made it this far!!! 

Thankful tree

For family night last week we made a thankful tree. It was fun to see the things the kids came up with. Luke's leaves are in the red marker, Halle's are in the blue pen. I'm sure thankful for these sweet kiddos of mine!

What bed rest looks like

I'm almost thru week 3 of bed rest. I'm now about 30.5 weeks along. Every week further we make it the better! At my doctor appt this week it was the first time my cervix hadn't thinned in 3 weeks so we think everything we are doing is working. 

My life is pretty simple..I go from my bed to the couch in the morning and back to my bed at night. The kids spend lots of time cuddling with me on the couch. 

This week grandma Dixie has been up staying with us all week helping out and it's been great to have her here! We are so lucky to have so much help. 

Jazz game boys night

Daddy and Luke had a boys night tonight at the jazz game. Luke has been so excited to use his tickets he got from playing Jr Jazz. They rode the train downtown to the game. Their seats were definitely up high in the nose bleeds but Luke loved it and they had a fun time! 

Pumpkin patch

Cory took the kids to the pumpkin patch tonight (and took lots of fun pictures!) As you can see Halle forgot her shoes. Running shoeless through the pumpkin patch never hurt anyone! Wish I could have been there. Bed rest stinks but is worth it! 

Halloween 2014

Halloween was a lot of fun! Luke and Halle both loved their costumes and fit their characters very well :). As you can see Halle does very princess-like poses when she is all dressed up as Elsa, and Luke turns into a Master Jedi when he's dressed up as Yoda! The kids went trick or treating with their friends next door, Brennan and Elise. Cory took the boys and Elise's mom Brittany took the girls. They both got big loots of candy! Luke loves all kinds of candy, so his bucket had lots of variety. But we had to laugh when we saw Halle's bucket full of Reeses peanut butter cups. Those are her very favorite and lucky for her a lot of people must have been passing them out! She's not much of a candy/sweets girl but she does love her Reeses.

Milly's birthday

According to my kids today is a double holiday because it's Halloween AND Milly's birthday. Oops, I had completely forgotten about the Milly's birthday part until the kids reminded me yesterday! Luke and Halle and their friends next door Brennan and Elise spent many hours decorating and getting ready for Milly's "1st birthday party." They drew pictures for her, gave her two new squeaky toys, showed her Halle's room all decorated with streamers and a lovely display of books, and we sang happy birthday to her. As you can see, this birthday dog is very patient and very loved! 

Yoda and Elsa

Luke and Halle were invited to their friends Colton and Saige's Halloween party last night so they got all dressed up in their costumes for the first time this year. 

Halle has been talking about being Elsa for months. I knew Elsa would be a very popular costume this year because every girl loves Frozen, so I found this cute costume back in September and bought it right away. It has a long sparkly train which she loves. We sprayed her hair white and out glitter in it. 

Luke decided he wanted to be "Master Yoda" as he calls him, and wanted to look as realistic as possible. A Yoda costume wasn't as easy to find. We searched high and low and finally I found the costume online on Amazon, the hat online at the Disney Store, and we painted his face green. I think it turned out really great! 

What a cute Elsa and Yoda we have :). 

Bedrest helper

I found out today I'm going to need to be on bedrest. I'm barely 28 weeks along with the twins and we found out through an ultrasound that my cervix is thinning out more than they want it to at this point. So my Doctor gave me a steroid shot today that is supposed to help the babies lungs develop more quickly and also help stop preterm labor. Luke came with me to the appt because he was home sick today and he was so cute, he was worried about me and worried that they needed to give me a shot. But I assured him I would be fine. Then they told me I need to be on bedrest to take pressure off my cervix. What a bummer. The good news is the babies are looking great. Hopefully I can just keep them in a lot longer! I'd like to at least make it to 34 weeks. I go back in tomorrow for another steroid shot and to talk to the Doctor about it some more. 

Anyway, it hasn't been long but the kids have been super cute and understanding so far. When I have to get up to go to the bathroom or something Halle even holds my hand and walks me there because she wants to help, then holds my hand to walk me back. And she sits by me and asks me if I'm doing ok. Such a sweet girl. Luke has been helping out with cleaning up and listening, and gets me water and things and reminds me not to get up because I'm on bedrest. What a cute boy. I don't want this to be hard on my kids and am just thankful I'm able to stay at home and don't have to be away from home and them at the hospital. Hopefully it stays that way!

Lunch at school with my guy

It's still a little sad for me that Luke is now a big first grader and is gone all day long at school. So when he asked me if I'd go eat lunch with him at school sometime of course I was excited! I went his second week of school and went again today. I packed a lunch and ate with him and his friends in his class. Afterward he has recess and I went outside and watched him play for a little while. He loved having me there and I loved being there! He is such a sweet boy and it makes me happy that he wants me to be around and loves for me to visit him at his school. I know this won't last forever, but while it does I am enjoying it! I love my boy!!

Conference Sunday drive

This weekend was conference and today after it ended it was super nice weather and the perfect day for a drive up the canyon! We got out at Snowbird and went for a little walk/hike up on a trail above snowbird. We took Milly and the kids thought it was funny how she'd run around like crazy on the trail sniffing and run way ahead. They'd get nervous that she was going to get lost but we showed them that she always comes back. They are so protective of their little pooch! 

Milly money

When I was giving out allowance to the kids at the first of this month they asked me, "What about Milly? Doesn't she get allowance?" 

I said, no, she's s dog. She doesn't need allowance. They felt bad for her and decided to each give her a little bit of their allowance so that she has some money so she doesn't feel left out. Then next time we go to the store they said they will pick her out a new dog toy to buy with the money. They sure love this little pooch!

Breakfast outing

Today we had breakfast at kneaders with these munchkins. Halle kept saying the pancakes were really good, but still not quite as good as Grandpa Dave's pancakes! (She thinks his pancakes are the best in the world). Luke was skeptical of the French toast at first but once he gave them a try he scarfed them down. Cory and I had been talking about going here for French toast for awhile..it wasn't quite the peaceful morning breakfast outing we had invisioned with the two kids in their hyper morning moods, but still fun to get out as a family. We're trying to take advantage of getting out and about before we have two babies in tow everywhere we go! 

Lots of diapers

One of our neighbors did a diaper and wipes shower for me and a couple of the other moms in the ward who are expecting. And now we have lots and lots of diapers and wipes to get us started for our twins on the way!

Family photos

We took some family photos over the weekend. I am about 5 months pregnant with the twins in these. Probably our last family photos as a family of four! It was a bit of a challenge to get Luke to sit still and take a few photos of him by himself, he was running around and acting silly and making silly faces. But luckily we still got some good ones of him.