Scott's 1st day of preschool!

Scott had his first day of preschool on Monday. Each day they are suppose to wear the color of the day to help them learn, so Monday was brown day. So cute!

He went to meet his teacher a week ago, and he was so excited to see all of his supplies (crayons, glue, paint) all with his name written on them. She gave him a little person cutout and told him to decorate it to look like him and bring it the first day of school (to introduce themselves to the other kids)

I set out crayons, glue, stickers, buttons, poms, noodles, stamps and anything else I could find and let him go! (I did however make sure his eyes were set in the right place). He drew his own nose and mouth too- pretty good!

Hailey had fun playing along too. (Check out the Einstein hair!) She cried so hard when we dropped Scott off at preschool and she didn't get to go with him. Only 2 more years Hailey :)

I also had to post a few pictures of our garden because I'm so proud of it! I lived in Las Vegas for 18 years where you obviously can't grow a garden, so this is all a new venue for me. Some of it like the peas and beans didn't make it through our trip to California, but the rest sprout right up.

Our tomatoes have been doing pretty good. There aren't any ripe ones in the picture because we've been picking them off to eat of course

I thought tomatoes were the only vegetable growing. I told Kevin to come look at the beautiful flowers we were growing on our squash plants, and he informed me that the flowers grow on the the ends of the zucchini! What!?

How did I miss this big zucchini? I guess I was too busy watching the flowers grow! Haha (We are eating this one tonight)

Our carrots

Crookneck squash (Kevin's favorite)

We planted our garden late this year, which has worked out great because our neighbors have been sharing all their corn with us and by the time ours is ready we can return the favor

I had no idea gardening would be so much fun. This year we were just experimenting and so next year we should have the hang of it. As far as our yard goes, we've got our backyard pretty much ready for sod this week- pictures to come I'm sure.

This weekend we decided to drive up to Idaho and visit my grandparents. I'm lucky enough to have all four grandparents AND they only live a few miles away from each other!
Grandpa LaVall and Grandma Lill (my mom's parents)

Grandma Rosie

and Grandpa Clair (my dad's parents)

Those who know Hailey have probably noticed her cute little button nose. I think she got it from Grandma Rosie, but Grandma says her nose is not a cute little button nose any longer...ah Grandma- you are too funny

Kevin hasn't been back to Rexburg since we left 2 1/2 years ago, which is just crazy! We went back to Madison County and the City of Rexburg to say hello to his old boss and co-workers. All of the women at Madison County adored Kevin and made me bring Scott in at least every few weeks to visit. The last time they saw Scott he was about a year old, so they couldn't believe it! He finally got to personally thank them all for the gifts they gave him as a baby. (They even had a jar in their office the entire time I was pregnant, and by the time I had Scott it had about $150 in it). It was pretty cute.

We also took a minute to take pictures of all the places we lived in our college years. That could take a post in itself, but I thought it would be fun to show our first apartment as newlyweds.

We lived above these old stores. Our apartment was the last 2 windows all the way to the left. I think we paid around $330 (it was the cheapest in town) and was obviously from the 1920's. It even had an antique claw bathtub!

Why go to Yellowstone? We saw this moose out on the river driving out to my Grandmas!

I think I've mentioned this before, but I think my Grandma Lill's house/farm is the most peaceful place on earth! I just love it there, and so did the kids.

So what do little boys and girls do on a farm?

Take rides on four wheelers

(Hailey passed out after about 5 minutes of a ride!)

Tie yarn to sticks to play with the kittens as soon as they awake in the morning (video)

Swing on tire swings

Eat unlimited apples from apple trees

Take rides on home-made go-carts

Camp out in the backyard

(I told Scott to make sure he knows what a cool dad he has- most dads don't go through the effort, and mom was super sick and stayed in the house close to the bathroom)

Run through sprinklers (video)

Scott was having the time of his life on the farm. It was so cute when the sprinklers came on and he turned around excited and said, "Mom! Did you bring my swimsuit? I want to run in those sprinklers!" He has never done that before. He was just living it up!

I let him drive the four wheeler (with my help of course) down the potato field and he was just squealing in excitement. I had to have my hands on the breaks the whole time because he loves to speed!

We had a lot of fun just visiting with both sets of Grandparents and site seeing through our old college town. Unfortunately I got food poisoning or something and was throwing up every hour Saturday, so we didn't get to visit any of my aunts, uncles or cousins. Still it was a lot of fun!

Sunday morning I told Scott we had to go and he said, "AHWW!" I said, "Well you have 2 more hours to play" and he said, "But I want to stay FOREVER!" He was pretty bummed. I can't blame him- I could stay there forever too!

We have had the weirdest weather! I bought both the kids fall shoes (aka boots) because they were on sale, but I wasn't expecting they would break them in this weekend when we had temps in the 60s! I swear every weekend it turns to fall, and then during the week it goes back to summer...so strange! So with that weird introduction, we decided to take advantage of the sun and go swimming today

Hailey's choice of entry to the pool

Don't worry- it's only a few inches deep!
and snacktime of course
The other day I was trying to get cute pictures of the kids, and Hailey had the biggest pout on her face. Then dad came pulling up the driveway in the truck and I got this-(you can't see that she was kicking her feet in excitement too)
She is such a daddy's girl!

Scott still has 2 years before kindergarden since he has a December birthday. I decided to put him in once a week preschool this year and then twice a week next year. He gets to meet his preschool teacher tomorrow and starts on Monday!

I should tell him that the preschool teacher is best friends with his grandma- it worked on his sunbeam teacher! No seriously he was having major problems in sunbeams crying and then hitting other kids and not listening (he even got kicked out a few weeks ago). Of course he got in big trouble and had a major talking-to, but then the next week in prep I told him that Sister * was BEST friends with his grandma. He looked so surprised and smiled. So when I went to get him after church that day I asked how it went and the teacher said, "Oh he was just the sweetest thing ever! He was just sitting on my lap giving me loves the entire time." Too funny!

Scott has been so excited about the new baby and telling everyone. Tonight after dinner he said, "But mom, how do you get pregnant?" I told him that dad was really smart and would probably know the answer to that one.

If the picture doesn't explain it, here it is in plain terms

"WE'RE PREGNANT!"

I'm 12 weeks pregnant and due February 23rd

I found out in June when I was in Las Vegas and kept it a secret from Kevin for 4 days so that I could tell him in person on Father's Day. He was pretty suprised, but definitely excited!

Scott is way excited and Hailey doesn't really know what's going on, but she loves babies and carries them around everywhere she goes, so I don't think she'll have a problem with it.

Now the question is, should we find out the sex or not when we already have a boy and girl?

As soon as we found out I said no, but my obsessive compulsive personality might not go for it.

This week we finished the play area in our backyard. We are hoping to get grass on September 1st, but so far the kids have really been enjoying their new sandbox and mulch play area their dad made them. Kevin has also been building a see-saw to go in there, but it's not quite finished yet. (Oh yeah, and our fence is finally done! Yeah!)

Scott and Hailey love playing with trains.

Usually Hailey doesn't take it quite as serious as Scott, so we have to build her own separate one that she can demolish.

Hailey thinks she can ride anything, it's so funny! One of these days I'm going to get a picture of her favorite ride- a 2 inch motorcycle that goes inside this camper.I LOVE this picture of Scott! Unfortunately about 5 minutes before the picture was taken he was in complete tears. We went to a summer fun in the sun party for Relief Society and they had a bunch of blow up pools and fun stuff for the kids. She warned us that she had wasps in the playhouse, but said that she sprayed them a bunch of times. Most of the kids played in the pools, but Scott and a few others liked the playhouse the best. Plus we have so many wasps around here, they don't really scare Scott at all. Well times may have changed because he came running out of the house screaming and we were all trying to figure out what had happened. He had been stung 3 times on his arm! I asked him if he was bothering the bees and he said, "NO! I was trying to run away from him!" One of the girls there said to put pennies on them because the copper takes away the sting. Scott can now testify that it works- see this smiling face!

Okay so I have felt really guilty that I still hadn't gotten rid of Hailey's pacifier and she's 20 months old, especially because Scott was over his at 6 months. So anyways our pediatrician said when we are ready to tackle the task to find her a toy, special blanket or teddy bear that can replace the pacifiers. Hailey is extremely attached to her 4 pacifiers, so I wasn't really wanting to undertake it just yet. Well we were shopping at the store on Friday night and she spotted this tiger. She was not giving it up and kept bringing it over to me at the checkout (of course they set them right there!) Then I thought to myself, this could be the golden opportunity, so I pulled her aside and explained to her that if I bought her this tiger she was going to give up all of her pacifiers. I held up her pacifier and said that they would be gone forever and all she would say was, "Yup!" "Yup!" So that night she slept with her tiger ("itty") instead of her pacifier and woke up as happy as a clam. Yes, it is really big- but at least she can find it in the night a lot easier than the pacifier!Since then Hailey has forgotten about our little agreement...She keeps pointing at her shelf where we kept the pacifiers and I keep lifting her up to show her that they are no longer there. It's been a little rough, but we are standing our ground! I know it's better to do it now than any later!

We have been gone for a week soaking up the California sun!

Warning- this is my longest post yet! Lots of pictures!

We started our 12 hour car ride Thursday night and got into Las Vegas around 2 in the morning to crash for the night. Friday afternoon we finished the rest of the journey and arrived in California Friday night. The kids didn't do too terrible, although they didn't even sleep the night we drove to Vegas until we got there. Every time Scott would try to lay down Hailey would reach over and pester him and they both were laughing at each other all night long!

Grandpa excited to have his girlies for an entire week!

This is how the kids would eat breakfast each morning...all lined up- Hailey, Mia and Scott

Chatting it up

Saturday we spent some time playing in the pool and then ate at the yummy famous Crab Cooker. After dinner Kevin and I took the kids over to walk around the boardwalks at Newport Beach. They have an elementary school and the playground is right on the beach. The kids were having a blast

Hailey has the strongest little arms! She loves to hang on things. I wish you could zoom in on her face-hilarious!

While we were there a little 4 year old boy stripped his shorts off (he had on boxer briefs) and his mom totally over-reacted, yelled at him and chased him around telling him they had to leave. Right in front of this mom, Scott starts to tell me in a mean low yelling voice "I have NEVER seen a mom yell at her kid like that! It was so stupid! She was counting ONE TWO THREE and he wasn't listening!"... The mom was just glaring at me while I was trying to quiet him up

On Sunday we went to Laguna Beach, but we only got to stay a few hours because the wake was so high. All of the beaches were having record high waves - the highest they've had in 7 years

Kevin and Scott decided to make a big ditch in front of us so that when the water raised up it wouldn't get us wet.

Then he ended up making 2 sharks and a sea turtle in front of the ditch. Every time the water would come up over the sharks and into the ditch keeping us dry we would all applaud Kevin the engineer mind. Then we overheard a mom next to us trying to get her teenage son to build one for her (she was too busy laying out) and she said, "Look at him! He's a grown man and he's doing it" By the time we left the beach everyone around us had caught onto the idea.

Hailey played for a few minutes...

and then she passed out on Grandpa

The kids playing with dad at the pool

That night my parents grilled steaks and we had a little family barbecue. This is Hailey doing the "little piggies" to grandma. It's her absolute favorite thing to do and most of what we heard on our drive down was "Wah Wah Wah" as she wiggled her toes

After dinner Scott showed cousin Mia how to roll down the grass hills

On Monday we spent pretty much the entire day playing at Newport Beach

Scott could live at the beach. He made sure he kept his distance from the water, but he loved digging in the sand for hours and hours. I asked him why he was so scared of the water and he said, "Because I don't want it to take me all the way out there" and pointed to the boats hundreds of miles away

Kevin boogie boarding

Family picture after eating at Javier's for dinner. This is the best Mexican food with an amazing atmosphere if anyone is ever in Laguna Beach!

Aunt Brooke reading bedtime stories to Hailey

On Tuesday we got up and took the kids down to Crystal Cove Beach. It's right below where we stay and it's a protected state park. The fun part is going through this tunnel that is painted by all the kids. It echoed the entire way and all Scott wanted to say was "PIZZA" over and over. After we got through the people at the end said, "We heard you coming!"

The best part about Crystal Cove is that since it's protected people aren't suppose to remove rocks or shells or anything, so there is tons of sea life to look at. The kids were having a blast!

That night we did some shopping and eating at the mall and then Grandpa got the kids tickets to ride on the carousal

Wednesday we spent the entire day at LEGOLAND! (Thanks to my sister Bre getting discounted tickets!)

Hailey and cousin Mia hugging between rides

Scott always begs me to ride the little quarter machine rides at stores and I always tell him, "Sorry I don't have any quarters"... So obviously he had the time of his life getting to ride anything he wanted for an entire day. We couldn't wipe the smile off his face.

The plane was definitely one of his favorite rides because as it went around the curve it sped up and lifted the plane.

Another favorite was this Knight ride. The kids had to be 4 for this one, but Scott was plenty tall enough so he got in. The horse actually trots along around the little forest! Scott loved it!

He even got to go to driving school! All of the kids would run into the sides and get stuck and call for help. Not Scott- He would hit the side and then lean out the door to see which way to turn his wheel....smarty!

Here's a little video of Scott driving. He is the second yellow car...the first yellow car kept stopping and then Scott would run into him and he would turn around and point at Scott saying "No". His mom was on the sideline saying, "Well then move out of the way and he won't run into you!" After Scott passed his driving school they gave him a little driver's licence

Note to anyone who visits Legoland- they have a height requirement even if the kid is riding with a parent. Hailey was a few inches too short, but she did get to go on 3 or 4 of them. Here she is taking a boat ride around fairytale books.

and riding with Grandma on the choo choo trainGrandpa and Grandma were so great riding all of the rides with the kids. We were so lucky to have them with us!
My dad took Scott into the Dragon ride and you couldn't see what it was because you had to go inside to stand in line. Well apparently it was a roller coaster. My dad said it was about his limit. Scott didn't seem too bothered by it, even if he was looking down in the picture they took on the ride

Scott even got to meet Bob the Builder! He was sooo excited

Grandma taking Scott on a Safari ride. I didn't show pictures of me and Grandpa riding in our own cars...pretty funny

Snacktime...

One of the funnest things to do at Legoland is their waterpark. We brought swimsuits for the kids to change into (although Hailey chose not to wear hers) and let them go crazy.

Mia and Hailey were loving it

Check out this goofy face! Love it!

They have a huge pirate ship that has waterslides, cannonballs, and all kinds of fun stuff for the older kids. Here's Scott shooting out the water. The big barrell on the left fills up with water and then when the bell rings it dumps out 50-100 gallons of water onto all the kids!

Then Scott begged Kevin and I to take him on this big ship where you get to squirt the people at the waterpark. The only thing is that we can't really reach the waterpark, but the people at the waterpark can reach us, so we ended up getting soaked!

While Kevin and I took Scott on some big rides, Hailey was having a blast with Grandpa and Grandma in a little play area. They had about 10 little houses filled with legos, slides, and fun things. I told my parents that she had so much fun because Scott doesn't let her touch legos at our house. I guess I'm going to have to buy her some pink ones that can be just for her :) After Legoland we went over to Aunt Bre and Uncle Wally's house for a yummy dinner and a late birthday party for Wally. Then Bre came and spent the night. We stayed up all night outside the room telling stories. It was so much fun to have my mom and all four daughters together!

Thursday morning we dropped the kids off in my parents room bright and early and Kevin and I rode the bikes down to Crystal Cove Beach to have breakfast at the Beachcomber. It was so romantic and so much fun. I told Kevin if we were rich I would have a nanny come over and watch the kids every morning so that Kevin and I could go to breakfast together each morning. Seriously, forget about dinner dates- breakfast is so much more fun and it lets you relax and have a better day. My parents were sooooo great all week to watch the kids and let Kevin and I get a little break here and there

I thought for our last day there we should relax by the pool, but then Scott informed me that we HAD to go back to the beach. We ended up spending the last day down at Crystal Cove Beach playing in the sand.

Mia doesn't just play in the sand, she rolls around in it!

Grandma and Grandpa riding bikes along the beach.

Hailey and Daddy

It was so great to have Kevin with us. To prove my point, the day we left and all got in the car Scott said, "Wait! Dad gets to come too!?" He was so great with the kids and we just loved having him all to ourselves for 7 days!

Scott spent about 30 minutes digging a big hole, and when he went off with Grandpa and Grandma to look at the sea creatures he said, "Don't let Hailey get by my hole!" Well not only did she get by it, but she climbed in it and let me cover her up. It was so adorable!

She got all excited when her toes popped outThen Mia decided to join in too

Scott found a sharp rock that he called his "diamond cutter" that he used to draw pictures on the beach with.

We finished up our last day at the pool.

Scott loves his Aunt Brooke. He loves all of his Aunts though and still to this day won't say who his favorite is and says he loves them all the same :)
Bre, Mom and Brooke

I wish you all knew Brooke when she was little- this picture looks like Brooke holding herself as a baby...no joke! Brooke says that I loved her so much growing up that Heavenly Father sent me a daughter just like her

We got a few pictures out on the balcony before we left

Here's part of the group (Grandpa taking the pictures, Grandma sticking a banana on Grandpa's head so that the kids would smile, and Bre was trying to beat traffic back to San Diego)

Candice, Mia and Rick

Chris and Brooke

And here's our family picture...

I can't end the post (even though it is plenty long- I think record breaking even) without telling some fun bedtime stories from our trip...

Kevin, Scott, Hailey and I (when I wasn't sleeping on the couch) shared a room together with 2 beds. Usually we would put Hailey to sleep first and then once she was asleep we would bring in Scott. Well one night Kevin went to check on Scott and he was leaning over Hailey's playpen saying, "That sucking noise (Hailey's pacifier)! I can't sleep with all that sucking!"

Another night Scott went around and gave all 10 of us hugs and kisses goodnight before going to bed. Then he was crying in his room and when Kevin went to check on him he said, "I didn't get kisses from everyone!" Kevin said, "Yes you did..." And Scott said, "No, I kissed them, but they didn't kiss me!"

Last but not least, one night Scott and Hailey both were making noises and when they were checked on, Hailey had climbed out of her playpen and was laying in Scott's bed pestering him. I think she did it about 3 times before I moved the playpen further along the wall and she finally drifted off to sleep!