My first Thanksgiving!!

Well this year I hosted my first Thanksgiving! It was only my mom and my sister and a couple friends, but it was still very exciting for me! We brined the turkey the night before in some yummy spices. And then in the morning we lathered it up with butter and some more spices. When it came out of the oven, it was so golden brown and beautiful! It was so much fun. We also had yummy mashed potatoes, crock pot stuffing, vegetables, and of course gravy! It was so much fun having my mom and sister in the kitchen doing thanksgiving dinner together! I wish my whole family could have been here but we had a blast. Thanks to Lee and Heather for coming and bringing delicious cheesecake! We got to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade while daddy went and played football, which was so fun and then we watched the Dog show too!! Eden and Ella were so funny while we watched all the different types of dogs. They want one so bad! Sorry girls...mommy is NOT ready for a puppy! I have so many things to be thankful for in my life. I have a wonderful, loving husband and 2, almost 3, beautiful girls. We have such amazing families that we love and cherish so much. We are very lucky and so blessed for everything we have. I'm so thankful for the gospel and the knowledge that I get to spend eternity with my best friends! I'm so thankful for Jesus Christ. I'm so excited to celebrate his birth in just a few weeks! (We already decorated!!) I hope everyone's thanksgiving was as great as ours was!!

Being crafty!

Well since I don't have a lot to do I've been reading blogs, and shopping online, and looking at creative ways to make my house cute for cheap. All ideas that will probably never come about because I'm not creative, but I found this idea on a blog that I read and decided to try my hand at doing it! I'm so happy with how it turned out! Now I just have to get it printed and put it in a frame. I can't decided if I'm going to put it in the baby's nursery or put in in the girls playroom. Anyways just thought I'd share!

Not so busy month...

Well first off you'll have to forgive all the phone pictures. I've been terrible at taking pictures with the camera lately. So I have a new nephew!! My brother had a BIG baby boy at the beginning of the month. His name is Dean Robert Ellingson and he was 10 POUNDS 8 OUNCES!!!! Can you believe that? My brother's wife Mel is such a trooper. He is just so adorable and I love him so much. I can't wait to meet him and pinch his big chubby cheeks!! This month has taken forever it seems to go by. Christian left at the beginning of the month to go back to California to work for a little bit. The day after he left, both of the girls got the flu. Eden was on one side of my bed throwing up and Ella was on the other side of my bed throwing up! At one point I only had one bucket in the bed (Ella got sick later than Eden did) and both of them were throwing up at the same time, in the same bucket!!! Poor things! I felt so bad for them. I thought I was in the clear because I didn't get it for the next couple of days but I wasn't so lucky. I got it and I got it BAD! Worst flu I've ever had! I actually had to go into the hospital because I couldn't keep anything down for over 12 hrs so they were a little worried about the baby. So I went into the hospital to get some fluids put back in me and to monitor the baby. I have been having contractions since about September and I've been progressively getting further along as far as dilating. Up to that point I had only been a 1 and the Dr wasn't too worried about me going into pre-term labor. Well the whole time I was at the hospital I was having contractions (not painful ones just so you know). They gave me some medicine to stop the contractions and had the Dr come in and check me. I was at a 2. So my Dr put me on bedrest for the weekend to try to avoid me going into labor. So poor Christian had to rush home and come to my rescue! And that he did. He had to take care of EVERYTHING that I usually did! Poor guy. Men and not made to be the housewife. Well at least my man was not made to be the housewife! So Sunday morning hits and what do you know, Christian gets the flu! Just our luck! And I didn't mention that my inlaws were out of town this whole time that all this was going on! We had to call in some major favors. But luckily they got back in town Sunday afternoon and came right over to get the girls. Christian got over it fairly quickly and was feeling ok the next day. I had another drs appt and we were hoping that I would be able to get off bedrest. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. I had progressed to a 2.5 over the weekend so alas, I had to stay in bed. It's been SO hard for me to just sit here. I actually miss cleaning and making dinner. I realized that I REALLY love just being a housewife. I miss it so much. So that was last week and I had another Drs appt yesterday, again hoping to be relieved from this boredom, but no. I'm now a 3. So I have to stay down until Thursday, which will make me 36 weeks. After that, if I do go into labor they won't do anything to stop it. I really don't feel like she's coming early but I can't tell if it's because I don't want to expect it and then get to 38 weeks and be completely miserable and wondering why she's not here yet, or if it's because I really don't think she's going to come early! Regardless of what I think, we've been preparing for her to come. We're trying to get the nursery done (as much as I can while being on bedrest...thank you online shopping!) We've bought a couple things we need for her. I've packed a bag for the hospital for me and for her. And we've tried to get all of our Christmas shopping done (again, THANK YOU online shopping). My mom is coming out next week for Thanksgiving and I couldn't be more excited. It's going to be so much easier and so much more fun for the girls when she comes! I just can't wait to spend time with her and have her be involved in getting ready for the baby to come! So needless to say this month has just kind of crawled by. It does seem pretty crazy that our little one will be here in less than 4 weeks. 3 kids...I hope we're ready for this! I'm feeling ok about it but I'm a little worried about Ella. I think she knows something is changing. She's been acting out, and she's been VERY clingy to me. I know she's so excited for the new baby and to be a big sister and a big helper, but I just hope I can still be the kind of mom she needs right now, while taking care of a newborn! Eden is going to be the best helper. She loves to be involved and she just loves to help whenever she can. I'm hoping that I can still get some alone time with each of them once the baby comes. I know there will be an adjustment period, and I'm just praying so hard that this little baby will be calm and patient know how excited we are for her to join our family.

Look at this adorable face!!!!! This is my nephew Dean! Ugh I just can't get over how cute he is!!

We cut bangs for Ella! Doesn't she look cute!

Playing games! Eden's favorite thing to do! (well that and watch movies!)

iChatting with my family. The girls LOVE to chat on the computer! What a blessing we can do this! That's how we met baby Dean.

My mom made this adorable quilt for the baby. This is kind of the colors for the nursery. It will be the blue color and then some pinks and a touch of black. I can't wait till it's all put together!

My cute hubby. He did a great job on the paint! He's awesome!

The new swing we bought for the baby. I LOVE it!!!! It's so pretty and there's so much padding in the seat. It reclines almost all the way back and can swivel so it can be used as a bassinet as well. And the seat comes right off to be taken from room to room! Love it!

Lastly here's a little video of my cute little Ella just playing away with her Little People that she loves so much. She has the most amazing imagination for only being 2. I can't believe how well she plays on her own.

Yay I'm actually doing it...

Well I can't believe I got myself back on here to finish the update!! I'm pretty proud! So we'll just continue on where we stopped...

June

We spent all of June in California with Christian. We had A LOT of fun this month. We spent a lot of time at Disneyland, the pool and just hanging out with daddy. Scotty's fiance Audra (Auntie Audie) came out to visit Scotty so we went to Disneyland for a day with her. Unfortunately I didn't get ANY pictures with her and the girls :( But we had so much fun. Then Aunt Brittney came down and we took a special Princess trip to Disneyland! We got the girls all dressed up in their princess dresses, Eden of course was Ariel and Ella was Tinkerbell. Which is so funny because she TOTALLY has tinkerbells personality! We did the Princess Fantasy Faire and the whole day was devoted to finding princesses and meeting them! It was a blast! The girls had so much fun. (And so did mommy and Britt)

July

In July we took a trip to Texas to visit my family. We hadn't been there in a really long time so it was so nice to be there and spend time with them. Christian also was able to work while we were there so we got to stay extra long! We had 4th of July there which was SO fun and luckily we were there for the coolest week in the summer!! It was still super humid but I don't think it got over 100 the whole time we were there. We went to see Toy Story 3 and the girls LOVED it!! Ella sat through almost the entire thing. Eden got a major hair cut! We went to a rangers game. And...we found out we were having another baby girl while we were with my family. After Texas it was back to Cali where we spent more time at the pool and we finally took a trip to the beach. I wish we could have gone more but it was just a little to far away. We also took a trip south of the border to Tijuana. Wow was that an adventure. It was fun for the first little bit but then it got really hot. We walked around FOREVER to find some cowboy boots, which we found! But the drive home was the most interesting part. On your way out of Mexico, right before the border there are TONS and TONS of vendors and people trying to sell you stuff before you leave. It was so awesome! People come up to your car and haggle like crazy! It was so fun. The guys were LOVING it. It took forever to get out but finally once we reached the border we thought we were home free. NOPE. For some reason we had to pull over into some secure area while these Border patrol police checked out our car. They wouldn't tell us what was going on. THen finally they opened the rear door of the Tahoe and asked Chad to step out of the car. They took him away in handcuffs and didn't tell us one thing. It was super scary. While Chad was no where to be seen, we also realized that I did not bring my INS card. I had my Canadian passport but for some reason I didn't even think to bring my INS card that shows that I'm legal to be in this country. So our options were to leave me in Mexico while everyone else drove the 2 hours back to Fullerton to get my INS card and then drive the 2 hours back to pick me up, pay $500 (ridiculous), or have someone bring me the card. Luckily we have some pretty awesome friends and our hero, Lee Evans, drove down to bring us the card. We were at the border for about 4 hours, 3 of those hours were spent not knowing what was going on with chad. Finally he came back and he had been detained because of a ticket that wasn't paid. The cops kind of laughed when they realized thats all it was. We were not laughing. Pretty much it was not the best experience but we got some good stuff! Quite an adventure! We also took our last trip to Disneyland. It was kind of sad because we're not sure when we're going again. With the new baby we just don't know when we can get the whole family there :(

(5 months pregnant)

August

This month we took our annual Bear Lake Trip with the Rodee Family. This year was really fun because the girls were such a good age. They just played in the sand and the water the entire time! They loved riding on the boat and they even rode on the tube. It was so much fun! While we were there Brittney and Josh told us they were expecting a baby!!! This was such great news because they had been trying for a really long time. Our babies will be 3 months apart. How fun! At one point, me and brittney were walking together down to the back and Dad Rodee was walking back and he saw us and got all teary and said, "My 2 pregnant girls!" It was so cute! The boys built rival sand castles, well more like forts! It was the good guys (Scotty, Josh, and Cameron) vs. the bad guys (Christian, Chad and Braun). Their forts went with the theme! It was funny. The guys also grew "Bear Lake Beards" Eden carried on with her crush on Chandler Wilson. She loves him so much. All she wanted to do was spend time with Chandler (he's 11). He was, and is always, SO sweet with her. He just plays and plays with her. It was great to watch them! Eden started soccer! She loved it so much. She had a little bit of trouble her first game with everyone trying to take the ONE ball away from each other. But she got the hang of it. Ella loved watching and cheering on her sister but REALLY wanted to be out there with her! I don't blame her. It looked like fun!

Eden 3 years

September

September was a great month! We FINALLY got to move in to our new house! This was such an exciting day. We had been waiting for this since March! We LOVE our new house so much. Eden started preschool, which she loves and does so good at! She also started a Dance class. She is SO cute in her outfit and dance shoes! She's really good too! I love watching her. She loves her teacher Miss Debbie. We had a bridal shower for Audra which was super fun to get to know her and her family a little bit more. We went to watch Aunt Kayla play rugby and the girls loved cheering for her! My awesome SIL Brittney took some belly pictures of me and the girls for Christian for his birthday. And we celebrated Christian's 28th birthday! He spent most of the month working in California but came home for his birthday which we were SO glad to have him!!!

October

This month was busy! First off, SCARUDRA GOT MARRIED!!! It was such a beautiful, enchanting, so so fun, HOT day! It was just so awesome to be with them in the Temple and share such a joyful day with our family. The girls were so good the whole day. They loved being a part of a wedding. It was just such a blast. We also had Audra's birthday and Cameron's birthday. I don't have pictures yet of those things but I'll some up when I get them. It was Halloween this month too and so Eden got to go to the pumpkin patch with her preschool and she got to dress up in her costume for her dance class. This year Eden really wanted to be Jessie from Toy Story and so her talented Aunt Stef offered to MAKE her costume. That's right, I said make. And let me tell you she did an amazing job! I can't believe how incredible it turned out! To go along with the Toy Story theme, Ella was Rex the dinosaur! She was so proud of her costume! She wanted to wear it ALL the time. She did her little "roar" with it and it made everyone laugh! She's so adorable! Christian took the girls to the ward Trunk or Treat and then we also had a fun Halloween/Ella's birthday party at our house this year! I don't have pictures yet of that but they'll be up soon. Everyone's costumes were awesome! I can't believe my little baby is 2 already. She definitely acts like she's 2 but we just love every minute we get to spend with her! She loved her birthday! For like a week before her birthday she would sing happy birthday to herself all the time it was so cute. On her birthday we took the girls to the zoo with our friends the Leatherberry's. Their girls are the same ages as our girls and so it's so fun to watch them play together. We had so much fun. There were lots of animals out because the weather was perfect. The Tigers especially were putting on an awesome show for us! The girls got bored watching them but all the adults wanted to stay! It was a great day and a great way to celebrate our little Ella! (I also will be posting pictures from the zoo later too!)

Eden and Miss Debbie her dance teacher

Well I think That should be it! It feels good to get everything on here! Hopefully I can keep up to date on everything when the baby comes. Which could be sooner than later! More on that to come. Bye!!!