You Know Belly's Big When...

1. You walk up the stairs and can barely catch your breath at the top of 12 stairs.
2. You get more "mystery stains" on your shirt than food in your mouth.

3. Your husband says,"Your belly looks more like a watermelon than a basketball now"
4. A lady at the Butterfly Pavillion elbows you in the gut as she's trying to put on her backpack.
5. You begin the infamous and unattractive "preggo waddle."
6. People at Costco look at your stomach first, then gradually move up to your face to address you.
7. Your belly serves as a convenient "shelf" for your water bottle or M&M's.

8.Your profile now looks like Snoopy's.
9. Your 3 year old walks by and says"Move Out of the way...JUMBO!" When asked, "Who is Jumbo?" He responds...an elephant.
10. Your belly jiggles like Santa's when you laugh.


(Never thought I'd post my jiggling belly...but it's my 4th and last baby... I gotta document this madness before I forget)I just can't imagine getting bigger...but I know I will...10 weeks and counting. UGHHH!

The 4th in Idaho Falls

My wonderful sister's-in-law hosted a double baby shower for Annalise and I. We knew ours was a girl and just learned that hers is a girl too!! GIRL POWER! The "stash" on the floor is hers and mine is on the other side of the room!

Ben and I visited the Rexburg Temple...BEAUTIFUL... and did some overdue Templework for my grandfather and sealed him to my grandmother who passed away about 8 years ago.

We went to the zoo with our cute little "Chick" friends from Pocatello. Thanks for meeting us Rachel!!

We celebrated Ethan's "REAL" 6th birthday with the family at Grandma Ahlstrom's house with our Arizona cousins.

Summer Update-Christmas in June

I feel like school just got out last week and we finally have a week to STAY HOME!!

June was a whirlwind for us as we decided to make memories with our boys instead of buying them stuff and things as we usually do at Christmas. Sometime in February I got this wild hair to go on a cruise as a family. Well we finally went to Jamaica and Grand Cayman for a week and I recommend it to anyone who is considering a cruise.

As a result of our experience, I've compiled a short list of do's and don'ts for any future cruisers.

DO
1. get on the boat as early as possible before departure, or you will feel like you are on Ellis Island, trying to pass all of your physicals to get into AMERICA!

2. take appropriate clothes for the cruise...my poor mother must have thought she was going to Alaska (again) and brought all kinds of long sleeves and pants!!

3. send your kids to the KIDS CLUB every chance you get. They think they are going to this fabulous party every day to learn the Electric Slide and all sorts of other cool things. When in fact, you're the ones having the fabulous party WITHOUT THEM.

4.Indulge in all of the YUMMY FOOD and forget about the scale for a week. NO ONE is going to serve you lobster and fancy soups and desserts when you get home.

5. Go on the earliest excursion possible or you will be sitting there BAKING in the hot sun waiting for your 10:30 tour to begin while everyone else has left to go swim with the dolphins.


DON'T

6. Feel bad about dumpin' the kids at the kid's club, you'll get over it after a few minutes.

7. Lose your 9 year old kid on the ship the first few minutes you get on board. It's hard enough to find your way around without being in PANIC MODE!!!

8. Take AMERICAN EXPRESS. Jamaican beaches don't take it. Take your VISA, it's everywhere you want to be!

9. Be afraid of kissing a stingray, kinda feels like kissing a GIANT slimy mushroom. Now, I will have 7 years of good luck...according to my tour guide.



10. Don't leave the gift shop on Grand Cayman island without your 9 year old...as the ship is preparing to depart!! You will be traumatized for several hours after that.

Do photograph the DARLING towel animals on your bed every evening.


Do take water shoes for the Jamaican beaches. Our feet were getting cut up with rocks as we posed for this picture as our water shoes sat on the ship.


Do invite your parents to join you..if you like them. Mine are pretty cool.


Send the kids to the space alien parties, they will have a blast!!


This Christmas, instead of presents, the kids will get a power point slide show of our Cruise. We'll see how that goes over!

And the Gender is...

The moment couldn't come soon enough for Ben and I... as well as about 20 of our close relatives and friends. On Tuesday morning Ben, my sister Veronica, Alec, Ethan and I drove to Denver to see our little bean "close up and personal." I had mentally prepared myself to hear the news that he would be healthy and growing at a healthy and perfect rate.

Minutes after walking into the ultrasound room, the tech asked me in a nonchalant way if I wanted to know the gender. After eagerly saying "YES!" She proceeded to tell me that I could call in my family and she began the scan. In times past, the tech had taken all of the routine and necessary pictures and at the very end of the scan told us that we were having a boy and showed us his little boy parts to prove what she already knew for sure. This time was MUCH different. Basically,she took one or two measurements of the head, squished my stomach some more and moved the scanner around and said in her monotone nonchalant voice, "It's a girl."

We all had to pick up our jaws off the floor as the tears streamed down my face. Then, Ben proceeded to ask with a big cautious smile on his face, "So, how sure are you?" Again, she looked at him like he was a goofball and said, "100%. See those two little white lines, that's the labia." Enough said.

We had never seen "that part" before so of course it was all foreign to us. My sister's first words were, "I can't believe it...I can't believe it!! Followed by, "Time to get rid of all that baby boy clothes. Let's have a yard sale this weekend!! Alec of course was less than thrilled as he said, "Now you have to spend a bunch of money on clothes!" Ethan said, "I knew it...I knew it...because you had headaches and girls give their mom's headaches." Needless to say, we are ELATED to welcome a daughter into our family. And I'm HAPPY to buy all new stuff for our new little princess.

We Found Our Missing Mariachi Band

Many moons ago, 12 years to be exact, Ben and I were married in the San Diego Temple. After the wedding, we had a ring exchange ceremony and a reception to share our joy with our families and all of my non-mormon relatives. My dad had ordered a keg of beer for the "drinkin" relatives and a Mariachi band to entertain our guests for the evening (traditional Mexican custom).

As luck would have it, neither showed up to our reception. Last week, my sis-in-law finally found our missing band on the streets of San Diego waiting for public transportation to give them a lift to someone else's wedding.

One More Makes Four

After struggling with fertility issues with our last two boys, I had decided to hang my hat and be content with the three beautiful boys that God had sent me. So, you can imagine my surprise when I learned we were expecting a little peanut a few months ago.

It took me a while to actually believe it. But after 2 ultrasounds,I feel that I can believe our little miracle is true. Initially, I was really concerned about Down's Syndrome because of my age and my brother has Down's. Once I accepted that I was okay with whatever card I was dealt, I felt better. After some recent bloodwork and genetic testing, my odds are pretty good that the baby is fine. We are excited and looking forward to finding out if we will add to our little baseball team or if I will share my throne with a little princess. Either way, we can't lose.

Carter Finds the Egg

One of the treats of having my sister move to Colorado is that she brought her 2 chihuahuas, Pepa Dog and Chalupa and her Labrador, Coco. They visit often and our boys love the dogs. The part I love the best is that after a few hours they leave, my boys got their "dog" fix and I don't have to buy them food or scoop their poop!

In this episode, my sister hid an Easter egg on Coco's collar just waiting to see if any of the kids noticed. Carter finds it in the first thirty seconds of the video, so unless you've never seen kids running around the house hunting for Easter eggs...don't feel obligated to watch the rest of the video.