Our Ultrasound

We had our ultrasound yesterday and the baby is a girl! We will have three girls now. Cameron called his brother and said it was up to him to pass along the family name. I would post pictures but my scanner will not work at all. I am not sure what the problem is. She is face towards the back which is probably why I do not feel her move and why when I do feel her move it feels different and softer than the girls. We don't have a for sure name so we will keep you guessing.

Summer time things to do

Yesterday I took the girls to the San Bernardino County Museum. It was really fun. We saw live animals and got to pet a snake and a bunny. We saw lots of different frogs and millipedes. We also saw tons of cockroaches and skinks which are kind of like a lizard. We then explored the world of large stuffed animals. They had nearly every kind of animal that there is in North America. They also had a large exhibit of butterflies that Ali looked at and found all the ones around our house. After that we looked at all the stuffed birds and their eggs. We then went to a traveling exhibit of architecture. They had coloring pages for the kids to color and put on the wall. I was very proud because Ashling wrote her own name for the first time! They also had tons of blocks to build your own buildings and we built quite a few different towers. It was fun to play with the girls for the afternoon.

Today I took the girls to the school. We took their bikes, a soccer and basketball and a large water bottle. I played a little basketball with Ali, bounced the ball back and forth with Ashling, and watched the girls ride their bikes to the top of the black top and then race back down again. It was really fun to go to the school to ride bikes and we will have to do that again soon. Ali saw a friend there and enjoyed playing with her. They tried to catch butterflies and raced across the monkey bars. Overall I have been trying harder to find things to keep the girls entertained and hopefully it will work.

Ahhhh, will school please start already?

I am trying to convince myself that twelve days is really not that many until school starts. It isn't... except that right now it is. We have had a pretty good summer but my Ali is bored and ready for school to start. Today we wrote a story, worked on about 20 puzzles, Ashling worked on writing and recognizing the letters in her name, played some games, read some stories, they played outside, played babies and house and I clean out my closet. But she is still convinced that our house is the most boring place in the whole world. I am pretty convinced it is like being trapped in an insane asylum because all Ali wants is friends to come over and all I want is school to start. I called three friends out of desperation but none of them were home. She only asked me 85 times if she could call an additional friend but my list ran dry. She has told me that she needs new toys 50,000 times and she can't wait for Christmas.

I haven't posted on our vacation because it has taken all my energy to keep the kids busy even though I now feel great. So please let me know what I am doing wrong and what new inventive ideas you have for keeping my busy girls entertained without spending any money for the next two weeks! (We did just get back from a vacation after all.)

Another side note: Ali will not go to sleep at night. Anyone have any ideas of what to do with the six year old who can't or won't go to sleep at night? It is starting to really get on my nerves. Cameron is sitting outside their door right now and she will still not listen and lay still. We threaten and punish her but it doesn't work. I am about ready to give her sleeping pills so please help (j/k).

My first craving....

I don't normally have things that I call cravings when I am pregnant. Yes I always wanted cake with Ashling but I doubt that was healthy. And with Ali I just wanted Tucanos food for 9 months. But the other night Cameron was messing around in the kitchen at 10:00 pm and I asked what he was making. He said, "taco soup." This sounded very good to me and I begged and pleaded for him to make it. After he wouldn't, I went in the kitchen to see if I had the ingredients to make it. I didn't. There are no stores open on the mountains at 10:00 p.m. and so I gave up. A couple of days later I made it for dinner and it was as good as it sounded. I am still craving it and will buy the stuff to make it again today. I hope my family doesn't get tired of it because I really need to eat taco soup for breakfast, lunch and dinner..... well maybe not quite that much but it is close.

So here is the recipe for taco soup in case you want to know what it is I am craving....

Taco Soup

1 pound hamburger cooked just like tacos
1 can kidney beans
1 can corn
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can ro-tel (it is by the tomatoes and I always get mild)
1 envelope taco seasoning

Dump all ingredients into a pot. Stir around and cook until warm. Serve over fritos chips in a bowl and put sour cream and cheese on top. Very yummy.

In other news I am in my second trimester! Finally I am 14 weeks along and starting to feel better and get some energy back. We went on a hike last night and now I know that being lazy for 7 weeks has not been good for my endurance and I will have to build up again. I am not showing in anyway that looks pregnant and still wearing my normal clothes although they are a little tighter. I am glad this baby is already not as big as Ashling was at the same point. Hopefully the fact that sweets aren't high on my list has helped....

Attack of the Sugar Monster

We invited our friends up for the weekend from Murrieta. We had a great time. We made some steak and hot dogs and then drove over to Lake Arrowhead. Barbara and I got pedicures while the men entertained the kids. After that we did a little shopping. Barbara got a new purse and I got some new shoes that actually have a heel. (They looked really cute to show off my pedicure.) We came back to the house and Cameron made some brownies.

This is where it got a little interesting. I think that Cameron and I are a little unprepared for a new baby. We forget that they get into everything especially since Ashling never really got into anything and always tried to listen. Anyways their little boy is two and like all two year olds into everything. We were enjoying talking and nobody noticed him slip away. Later we went into the kitchen and saw that he had played with our sugar like sand and spread it all over the kitchen. Cameron and Andrew cleaned it up and it seemed like it was all gone. Until today I opened my lower cupboards and found sugar everywhere! It should be interesting to have to baby proof our house and ourselves again. The moral to this story is put the sugar away after you use it Cameron!

It's not hot anymore....

I just thought I would update you in case you were worried about us being hot-that it is not hot anymore. It is wonderful and perfect for summer. We have had cloudy cool days for the past four days and I am not complaining! This is why we live in the mountains. 70 degrees is perfect.

Other than that we went to the beach on Saturday with friends. It was nice and relaxing although the waves were a little dangerous. My little fish stayed in the water the entire time we were there and complained when we finally made them get out when the life guards went off duty. We made a nice hamburger dinner and enjoyed the time visiting with the Holmes. Later we went out for desert at Denny's. Ashling was not happy when I made her take a shower at 11:30 at night. She cried and told me she was too tired and then proceeded to sleep in until 9:00 the next morning.

On the pregnancy front I still feel sick and pregnant even though I am 13 weeks along. I threw up this morning! I thought this was supposed to be a first trimester thing.... When will it be over?

Lake Gregory

I found a new love.... Don't worry you don't have to feel sorry for Cameron it's not that bad. I have fallen in love with a lake that we have in the mountains. I love swimming of any kind and have felt like there was no where to go this year much to my disappointment. Today a friend of mine, (Amanda,) suggested we go to Lake Gregory. It was wonderful. There was a nice lake that wasn't too dirty with lots of sandy shore and pretty warm water. It wasn't particularly warm today and it was overcast but the lake still felt wonderful. We rented a long board that the kids could paddle on and they went all over the lake with it (or at least out to the buoys where they had to stop with life vests on.) Ali convinced me to take her to the other side of the lake so I got to get some exercise while taking her across on the long board.

Other than the swimming there was sand to dig in and the kids played a little frisbie. They also had a cheap reasonable snack bar and the kids got corn dogs. There were shade trees if you wanted to stay out of the sun and plenty of sunny beach too.

I plan on going back lots of times. With gas so expensive the beach is hard to go to this year and so this will be our new beach. What a wonderful little spot to take the kids for the day and let them work on swimming and playing in the sun. Maybe I will remember the camera and sometime we can have pictures too.