Book Party

My sister-in-law is amazing! She and a couple of her friends read a selected book with their kids and then get together for a party. When I heard about the last one I asked if I could come to their next one. We read The Boxcar Children. My kids enjoyed the book and wanted to read it every day. (Probably because they knew there was going to be a party when we were done :) )

The pictures are all out of order, sorry.

So we started off in a big tent Lou Anne set up in her front yard. We read a book about trains and sang a couple songs. Then we went out on the lawn to paint our little boxcars red. Thankfully Lou Anne had some extra aprons for my kids :)

My kids absolutely loved painting those boxes!

Then they took their boxes over to get some "beds" glued in that were made out of straw. (We were going to make little people for them too but the lady in charge of that part wasn't able to make it.)

After that they had a little snack. Blueberries, milk, and bread. Which is what the boxcar children ate :)

Then they all gathered together for some races. They were very simple but the kids loved them. In the book the winner won some money so the kids all got a few nickels as prize money!

This whole thing was so much fun! Thank you thank you Lou Anne for letting us come and have fun with you!

Just To Clear Things Up

So a friend of mine got on my blog for the first time and said to me, "why do you call it Day By Day? You only blog every few weeks?" Haha! It's not the first time someone has said that to me but for everyone else wondering, no, I don't intend to share about every uneventful day. I'm merely referring to the way I go about my life, day by day. I tend to get really stressed out and overwhelmed about the littlest things and I have learned that the only way for me to stay sane is to only focus on one day at a time. Lately I have been really stressed about finances. I know we are doing all we can but we are constantly praying for more work for Brandon. That is definitely one thing I have to take one day at a time. I can't think about how we will be able to pay for things in the future because I DO have faith in the Lord and know that as long as we are paying our tithing, he will bless us. The other thing I take one day at a time is this pregnancy. I know I've mentioned it before but it's always on my mind. I can't believe I have 3 whole months left. And 4 holidays mixed in there! I used to tell myself that as long as I keep going to the gym every day I will be fine but now it's becoming more difficult to do that seeing as how I am getting too fat for my workout clothes! I just can't bring myself to buy more.... So for right now, I just have to apologize to anyone who has to look at me at the gym :)

So besides all that, I am absolutely loving my kids right now. And I'm actually not going through one of those stages where I can't wait till they grow up some more. I am loving the stages they are at and I can't wait to meet my new little one! We are going to name him Parley Alma after Brandon's great grandpa. Brigham is so super excited to have a little brother, he calls him "my kid" like he owns him :) If Tegan jumps on my belly or something he hollers, "Tegs, don't squish my kid!" Haha! It just cracks me up every time!

Brandon is playing on 2 different softball teams this fall. I am SO jealous! I can't wait to play again. I was actually playing with him up until about 2 weeks ago. It just got kind of embarrassing to be running around the field with my belly bouncing all over and everyone staring at me, haha! He is also anxiously awaiting the start of duck hunting season! Poor guy hasn't even been out to practice shooting yet :(

Jordan is loving preschool and church even more! Brigham is growing up so much I can hardly believe it! He is playing so much more with Tegan, it's so cute! Tegan is definitely getting "louder". She lets everyone know when she wants something or when she doesn't want something, haha! But she sure does keep us laughing :)

Not looking forward to winter but I'm definitely loving the cool nights!

Jordan's in Preschool!

This post is WELL overdue but I figured, better late than never, right? Jordan is attending a preschool that a lady in my ward teaches and she absolutely LOVES it. She counts down the days till she goes again and she can hardly stand it when I drag her off to the gym in the morning when she knows she has school that day. She doesn't go until 12:30 but she always thinks I'm going to make her late. Even though we always get back by 10:30. A couple weeks ago when Brandon and I were out of town she was so excited to go and Stephanie told her she had to wait another 10 minutes after Parker went to school. I guess it was just too long to wait so she decided to walk! When it was time, Stephanie was looking all over for her and finally decided she must have gone on her own so she drove there and sure enough, there was Jordan. She pulled her out of class and had a talk with her about never walking alone. Come to find out my neighbor saw her walking and offered to take her! How embarrassing! So needless to say, she is doing great. Not learning a whole lot yet because she already knows a lot of the stuff but loving every minute of it! I guess she IS learning to sit still and listen for a length of time :)She loves her little brother!!

Nauvoo

So we left for Nauvoo early Friday morning on August 21. My sister Stephanie got up at 5AM to drive us to the airport. We had a stop in Phoenix, Arizona for an hour then headed off to Kansas City, Missouri. We arrived at about 1:30PM and went to pick up our rental car when we headed off to Nauvoo. It took us about 5 hours to get there. I was already not feeling too great from the 3 hour plane ride and all that driving was really hard on me. When I'm pregnant I really get car sick. Apparently plane rides do the same thing :( Well, we finally arrived in Nauvoo at 8PM Friday night and after checking into our hotel, we went out for a walk to take some pictures of the temple at night. That's my favorite time to look at temples, I love to see the lights!

(My pictures are all over the place, I hate how blogger does the pictures!)

So then we went back to our hotel for the night where I had one of the worst nights sleep in a long time. I got the cheapest hotel in town which had a double bed. I about fell off so many times! Not only that but it's a little hard and I can't sleep on my stomach anymore so I have to keep rotating sides because my hips start to hurt.

Well the next morning we got up about 7:30, got ready for the temple, and headed downstairs to eat some breakfast. We had some Belgian waffles which were really good but they also had some hard boiled eggs which I love. But they were cold so I decided to put them in the microwave. After putting them in there I noticed a sign on the door that said "do not put eggs in the microwave, they will explode" I thought, well I have a paper towel on them so it shouldn't make a mess. Well sure enough, 5 seconds later it explodes all over the place! Haha, I was so embarrassed! It's a small-town kind of place. Not very busy. And the girl cleaning the place was right there. Needless to say, we left shortly after that....

So then we went to the temple which was amazing! I loved it, and I love knowing that not everyone who comes to see Nauvoo gets to see and experience this wonderful part of it. I felt so privileged to be there. After doing the session, we asked if we could do baptisms for the dead. They said yes and Brandon and I were able to do baptisms for the first time since we were teenagers! It was such and awesome experience! Brandon got to baptize me which was his first time. Pretty awesome!

After getting some lunch we headed to Old Nauvoo to see the sites. We went to the Joseph Smith Historic Sites first which is owned by the Reformed church. They took us on a tour of the Nauvoo house, the Homestead, the Mansion House, the Smith Family Cemetery, and the Red Brick Store. It was really cool to see where the prophet lived and gave sermons and such. And even to see where he is buried. After the tour, Brandon made the comment that he wished a member of our church had given the tour. I didn't see why because I thought the man was very informative and stuff but then we went to a site owned by the LDS church. It was the brickyard. They have elder missionaries at all the sites who tell you a story about the people who ran the shops back in the day and tell you a little bit about how they did things. And I just have to say how extremely different an experience it was to be in that little room with a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The spirit was there. He didn't even say anything about the gospel. He was talking about bricks! But it felt completely different than the tour we just went on. I am so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost! I know it manifests the truth and I know I am a member of the true church of the Lord.

So the rest of our time Saturday was spent looking at those little sites and then at 7 we went to a play that the LDS missionaries put on every night for people. It was great! I laughed and even cried. I was amazed that I was even feeling the spirit in a play!

The next morning we headed off to Carthage to see the jail and the visitors center they have there. It was amazing to see the jail and to walk into the actual place where the prophet spent his last hours!

After Carthage we went back to Nauvoo and continues visiting the many sites the church owns. We got a few souvenirs and lots of interesting information. I was a little car sick from the drive to and from Carthage so I was already not feeling great. And then we were walking around for like 6 hours. By 6 o'clock when all the sites closed, I had such a massive headache! We went back to the hotel where I popped a couple tylenol and lied down for a quick nap to try and sleep off the headache. It really doesn't help that we were living off junk food all day. We didn't make it to the grocery store before they closed yesterday so all we had to eat were the snacks and stuff we bought for our car and plane ride.

Well, I do feel better now. I decided to blog about the first half of our trip now so it's not so overwhelming when I get home. There is still a lot we have planned. Tomorrow we will be leaving Nauvoo and heading to Adam-ondi-ahmann, Haun's Mill, Far West, and Liberty. Then on to our timeshare condo where we will be till next Saturday. So more pictures and stories to come!
Window Joseph jumped out of

Door leading to the room Joseph was martyred in. It's a little fuzzy but you can see the bullet holes
The stairs leading up to the room
The living room in Carthage jail
This bug is really really loud! They are all over out here!
Just a picture of our drive. It is so beautiful out here!
The mansion house
the Nauvoo house
The grave site of Joseph, Emma, and Hyrum Smith
Statue of Joseph and Hyrum as they are leaving Nauvoo for the last time and heading to Carthage jail
Me and Brandon after our temple session


Some of my favorite pictures of the temple. :)

I don't know why I always wait for something big and exciting to happen before I blog. Cause that really doesn't happen too often which is why I don't write anything :) Just thought I would get some things off my mind.

First of all, I really can't wait to go on my trip with my Hubby! We are leaving on Friday for Missouri where we will drive to Nauvoo and stay for 3 days. I really can't wait to see the temple and go through a session. I am also excited to see all the other amazing historical sites there. My mom tells me the spirit is so incredibly strong in Nauvoo. So then on Monday morning we are going to head out back to Missouri hitting other sites along the way. I don't really have our route planned out yet but my dad is supposed to be helping me out with that :) Once we get back to Missouri we will be staying in our Timeshare Condo. I can't wait because it is right on the river bank where we can go fishing, swimming, and go for a dinner cruise! Hopefully we will get to that. We will be hanging out, relaxing, and TALKING a lot. I feel like Brandon and I don't get nearly as much time to talk about things like we used to. On a side note, my wonderful sister, Stephanie, is going to be keeping my kids for the week! She is so amazing, thank you so much Steph! We will be coming home late Saturday night on the 29th. I can't wait for this much needed break. I have been so stressed lately. My 4-Plex isn't going so well and that is a HUGE ordeal right now. Nothing worse than having a vacancy and still having to pay the mortgage that we really don't have extra money for. People are so irresponsible it drives me crazy! I don't know how people can live their lives like some of the people I have seen lately.

Another huge stress for me lately is of course being pregnant. Anyone who really knows me knows what a hard time I have with gaining weight. Not that it's hard for me to gain weight but that it's hard for me to accept it. I know I am going to gain weight being pregnant but I just gain so much! My first 2 pregnancies I gained almost 100 pounds and the last time I was pregnant I was bound and determined NOT to gain it all back. It's really hard to lose all that weight over and over! So I worked out like 4 hours every day, and dieted as much as I could. I even did the first half of my pregnancy without having any sugar what so ever! Occasionally I would have a little treat but I was very good about controlling what I ate. So much so that I just couldn't wait to have my baby just so I could have a break from counting calories. Well it all paid off of course. I "only" gained 43 pounds. Which is amazing for me especially after my first 2 pregnancies. Well I was really proud of myself of course but now that I am pregnant again, I feel like I need to be the same way. Well, it gave me total anxiety to even think of doing that again. That was a LONG 9 months. Needless to say, I only work out about 2 hours a day. And I definitely eat more than I did last time. Especially since Stephanie lives with me and cooks such irresistible food! I try not to feel so guilty about it all but it's just hard to know that it is actually possible for me to only gain 43 pounds. So yes, I'm always thinking about it. And always getting upset about it. I know everyone is different and everyone handles pregnancy differently but it's still hard to see those cute pregnant girls and not be envious, especially when I work so hard to be like that. I'm also really embarrased about the way I look. Always thinking about what other people are thinking about me.

Another reason why I am looking forward to this trip is to hopefully let go of some crankiness! I am so ornery when I'm pregnant. Probably because I am getting fatter and that bothers me so much. But my poor husband gets the brunt of it most of the time. Little dumb things that he does just get under my skin and make me so mad. He tries so hard but honestly I think it's a battle he can't win, at least for the next 5 months, haha! So I'm hoping that taking the kids and housework out of the picture will lighten my load and let me see how wonderful I know my husband is.

So hopefully I will be good and update everyone on how my trip went! I know I'm taking lots of pictures....

Evening Things Out

So yes, I'm weak. I couldn't last. A girl that works out at my gym found out what she was having last week and it's been killing me. So I scheduled my appointment....
I thought this was a pretty silly picture, like he was trying to get out or something :)

So it's a BOY!!

I'm so excited to even up the score, 2 boys and 2 girls. I can't wait to see what another boy will look and act like and to see how different they will be! We had decided on a name but now Brandon is bouncing around some other names so I guess we'll see....

Puppies!