It's a girl!!!

What a wonderful experience it was last Friday. My parents were coming to visit us. My dad had a business conference in San Diego and so they scheduled to stay for 9 days! I knew that they were coming, but Wednesday night my brothers Darren (and pregnant wife Brandi), Cory (and wife Lindsay and my 3 month old baby niece Brooklyn-who I hadn't seen yet) and Kevin showed up! I was so surprised and touched that they came to surprise us! I have been a little homesick lately. Probably a combination of no family here, the holidays, foreign winter weather and of course those lovely Pregnancy Hormones! So all of them coming was THE BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER! They all happened to come 2 days before my ultrasound and came with me. Brandi videotaped so we have it on tape as well. Maddi can't stop hugging and kissing my tummy! She talks to her all the time! She's so cute.





I am seeing a specialist OBGYN because for some reason, I can't understand (cancer-wink wink!), they think I'm a high risk pregnancy. They did a real in depth ultrasound and measured EVERYTHING. The size of her bones, brain, heart, lungs, fluid levels etc. They checked for spina biffida and clef palate etc. They said that we have a perfect baby girl. When we looked a few times she had both hands up at her mouth. My doctor looked on Tuesday and pushed a button to make it 3D so we have a picture of her face. What a cutie. At this point babies have practically no fat on them, but he said for having not much fat she still has a cute little face. We'll see who she looks like. I can't imagine Carson and I's features arranged in any other way than Madison! Maybe she'll have brown hair and green eyes. Maybe she'll be a tom boy and not like pretending, dancing and princesses. In which case she and Maddi will have NOTHING in common! Growing up in a house of only brothers I never pictured having girls. I really don't know what I'm doing. I know wrestling, star wars and ninja turtles. But Maddi has introduced me to Dora, princesses and nonstop pretending! Heavenly Father is helping me develop my feminine side!



While they were here we went to Disneyland. Madison had never been and Carson and I were very young when we went so it was like our first time too. It was truly magical and I am not being sarcastic! It was like being in this little fantasy world where everything is good and happy. (Until you had to pay $4.00 for a Churro!) But then on top of that they had Christmas music playing the whole time down the streets. It was a really neat experience. It was fun for all of us to watch Madison. EVERYTHING was "so cool" and she wanted us to see everything she saw too. When asked her favorite part of the day, she said "well, I'll tell you my worst part of they day!" Here's what happened.

Pluto ran to her and got down on one knee. She ran to him too (so unlike my shy daughter) and they hugged and then she couldn't get away. His collar had a hook that got her braid and she couldn't get out. It was actually quite funny, but apparently not her most favorite part of Disneyland! She loved going on the "big boy rides" with Grandpa and daddy.







Carson had fun too!








I could not keep my hands off of my sweet niece! We all got some newborn practice in!



It was a wonderful week and I owe all thanks to my family!! I love you all!

Let's play catch up!

Ladies and gentlemen we are going to catch you up today with Halloween, Carson and I's birthday and Thanksgiving. Oh and Proposition 8 too.

First of all we had trunk or treat! Madison was princess Belle from Beauty and the beast. A very beautiful one at that! Carson's brother Brian and his wife came from the Los Angeles area for the weekend so we all had a blast that weekend. Normally we would have to bundle Madison up so you couldn't see her costume and bring an umbrella. But not here. We were in short sleeve shirts all night! Wow, what a change being in Southern California is to what I've been used to my whole life!!











Carson and I's birthday was fun we had a yummy cake. (Brownies with a pudding and whip cream layer with bananas and strawberries and grated chocolate on top-yum!!)












It was a wonderful Thanksgiving. I did it all by myself!!
We had lots of invites from church, but we decided to do it on our own this year. It turned out pretty well if I do say so myself! There was one slight problem that I have to write down so that when my daughter makes her first turkey I can advise her against doing what I did! Also so that if she botches it I can prove to her I did too with mine. So I bought a turkey 5 days before Thanksgiving. On the tag it said there are bacteria that can make the turkey go bad if not properly preserved. It mentioned freezing or refrigerating. I was NOT going to make my family sick, because I didn't know what I was doing, so I decided to freeze it until it was closer to Thanksgiving. Well this particular turkey was 21 lbs. Now all of you turkey experts are smacking your foreheads right about now right? Well I didn't know, first time turkey cooker remember? Well I thought I ought to take it out a day before to thaw right? Well I did some reading and found out that for as big as it was I needed 5 days to properly thaw my turkey!!! So after panicking a little, I ran to the store, bought a small turkey roast and made that for thanksgiving dinner and it was great. And 2 days ago on Sunday (5 days later) I cooked my first turkey and it was heavenly!! Well now I know right? =)

Also this Thanksgiving included our very first Thanksgiving music concert. We have a child old enough to have those! So we were delighted to listen to 4 classes of kindergartners sing such song's as "The pilgrims says thanks, the pilgrims says thanks, high ho the dairy o, the pilgrim says thanks..."
and "5 fat turkeys are we.." It was VERY cute! Here are some pictures of our little pilgrim girl. She is the one in the blue on the bottom row 5 from the left.















We helped a lot with phone calling, and sign waving in favor of Proposition 8. We passed it by 52%.
It protects traditional marriage between a man and a woman. I know that I have friends who may read this who do not share our beliefs, so please don't be offended, we can just respect each other's beliefs right? Anyway, we have received a lot of "crap" for our stance, but we felt it was the right thing to do. The temples in California have been picketed for I don't know how many days now and the gay activists are in the process of appealing it. Anyway we'll see how this turns out. It was good for Madison to experience what it's like to stand up for something you believe in. She was so excited to wave signs with us and was heartbroken when she saw a "no on Prop 8" sign. So sweet.



One last thing. I feel great. My tummy is getting bigger every day and pretty soon I may have to cave and wear maternity clothes. We'll see. I am 16 weeks. Bye!