City Ball

The past 3 years Dustin has played on a City basketball league with some friends.  He enjoys the competition and loves basketball so it has worked just fine.  We love to go watch him play too on the nights when his game doesn't start at 8pm or later.  He is a good player so it makes it especially fun to cheer for our daddy.  

I sent Ella over to get a picture of him before his last game last night so we could blog about it, but I didn't know the post was going to be quite this exciting. :)

These kids love to run back and down the court and slide on their bellies and I just pray one of those crazy men doesn't go out of bounds and stomp on them.  So far it's worked out just fine.

However, last night as I was watching the kids run and trying desperatley to have them stop staring at the handicapped man who had just parked next to me in his wheelchair I hear people calling my name.  When I turned around the court was pretty empty and they were wiping the floor.  They said, "You need to take Dustin to the hospital.  He needs stitches in his face!"  I was blown away and quickly started to put together all the removed socks, shoes, coats, etc from the kids as well as Dustin's things.  Thankfully he had the blood contained before I saw him and he was applying pressure.  

We drove to the hospital where his brother Boone was just getting off in the ICU.  (SO grateful to have an experienced nurse for a brother in law!)  He checked Dustin out in the foyer and determined yes indeed he needed to be stitched up so we checked in.  Thankfully my parents were on their way home from Utah and were able to pick the girls up within about 15 minutes of arriving at the Emergency Room.

Poor Dust spent about the next hour getting numb and waiting for them to come stitch him.  Thankfully Boone was there to keep us company with his entertaining stories.

Super gross before picture that Boone convinced me to take.  Still makes me light headed to look at it.

All stitched up!  2 interior and 6 exterior stitches.  Poor boy had a  pretty black eye when he woke up this morning.  We will have to give some update pictures as it gets more impressive.  They warn me that Braithwaite boys are rough and tough and Boone's boy had to have stitches at 18 months.  SERIOUS!  I am not sure I can handle this.  If this boy ends up with stitches, I just sure hope his dad is home to help me out otherwise he may have to check us both in.  Either that or I need to pray for some tolerance for blood and guts or just a really calm little boy. :)

I got a call from him at work today and he says, "We made it into the championships so we have a game tomorrow night at 8.  Do you think it would be ok for me to play?"  I am glad he asked my opinion so I could give a big "N-O!"

Walks at the Park - Alissa learns the monkey bars!

We tried to take advantage of some nice weather and took the kids to Iona Park while I walked my pregnant body around the track a few times.  :)  One time I even got ambitious and packed their bikes in the back of the car so they could ride bikes and Ella roller blade.  I love that they all sat on this fence without being asked and gave me a nice photo opportunity.  :)  Sure do love these sweet girls.

Alissa learned how to do the monkey bars all by herself!!  I am amazed at the coordination and strength of this tiny girl.  She is just ambitious and brave and didn't have any supervision - just went for it!

Baby Brother's' Room

Dustin has been very concerned that his boy is going to get brought home to a pink room.  It makes me laugh.  So Friday he had the day off and we visited the Home Depot to buy some blue paint.  We didn't shop much, just grabbed a blue we both agreed upon and went for it.  By the time we got started Ella was home from school and of course all 3 girls wanted to help.

We had them put on their paint clothes and I found them a sponge brush.  

It took only about 10 minutes before we had to kick them out.  

Molly kept leaning up against the wall and would realize she had paint on her so she would grab the crib or another part of the wall or something and it quickly became a mess.

We made it a family event for a few minutes though.  

Thankfully the room is all painted and now we can finish getting ready by preparing clothes, blankets and all the other good stuff that comes with a baby.

Fun in the puddles

We have had some crazy weather!  About 2 weeks ago school was cancelled for -35 degree weather and then 2 weeks later it's 45 degrees and the kids are out riding their bikes.  In the week in between the drastic weather change the snow melted and we had TONS of water in the neighborhood.  We were on our way home from Visiting Teaching and the girls wanted to walk and splash in the puddles.  Looked like fun to me so I let them go and drove next to them.

Kinda wished I had rain boots. 

These girls crack me up.  For a few weeks they were outside just about every day rollerblading or skating in the drive way.  They were using all kinds of imagination to sweep the snow and play whatever it was they were playing.  Just made me smile every time I looked out at them.

Ella couldn't wait to get out in the puddles after school and crack the ice.

One day Alissa and Ella got real creative and made a snow castle. 

I thought that was pretty clever.  We sure are anxious for summer!

A little rearranging..

Since I have been done doing hair I have gone through my traditional "nesting" where I feel like every room needs to be organized and gone through.  I have taken at least 4 loads to DI already.  

About 2 weeks ago I was feeling a big urge to get things moved around to make room for this baby boy.  My mom came and helped me move Ella's room downstairs to our "guest bedroom" and switch the toddler bed out for a twin for Molly.  They baby now gets Ella's old room which will need to be painted. 

So far the girls are enjoying their new space.  Ella especially loves her room downstairs all except bedtime.  It usually takes somebody being down there with her for 5-10 minutes while she falls asleep which really hasn't been much of a problem.  Alissa has slept down there with her a few times and she has slept on my floor a few nights too during the weekend.

I took a picture in one of the few moments of clean bedrooms over the weekend.  Molly was asleep in her bed and for some reason Alissa felt like she wanted to stand by her. :)  

So relieved to have this all moved around and now I just need to do the boy's room.  One of these days when I catch some energy I will be all over it. :)

My Strep Girls

Back in December Miss Molly came down with Strep.  We treated her and soon after Alissa had strep.  We treated her and a week later she had it again.  We gave her a stronger antibiotic and within 2 weeks of finishing that antibiotic she had strep for a 3rd time.  After they confirmed it was strep they also said somebody in our family was likely to be the "carrier" and just not showing symptoms so to our excitement we got to all be swabbed for strep.   When the results came back they determined it was Molly.  How odd huh?  Alissa had a fever, sore throat, stomach ache and head ache and Molly was running around like no problems and they both had strep.

How exciting life is with little kids.  So I took pictures of the kids behind the glass as we were waiting one of the many times in the Dr. office.  Made the time go by a little quicker. :)

Happy Birthday to Me!

I had a fun birthday week before turning 31!  I keep forgetting how old I am, good thing for my 8 year old who helps me remember.  

We got to have lunch at Hong Kong for dad's birthday on Wednesday with my parents, all my siblings and grandma and grandpa Bateman.  

Thursday school got cancelled due to -35 degree windchill.  So, my good friend Farrah took the kids to Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs 2 and then we met for lunch at Chilis.  

Friday my brothers were heading out of town so Dustin and I and the 2 girls got to meet my parents and 2 brothers at Johnny Carinos for lunch for my birthday. :)  Pretty spoiled!

Mom watched the girls for us that night while we went to a session at the temple.  I was swollen like a sausage by the end from the heat and sitting still that long.  Baby boy felt like he was scraping around on something in my lower stomach too which made me pretty uncomfortable.  In the last few months the temple has got 2 new movies so that always makes for an exciting session too.

Saturday morning Dustin jumped right out of bed when he heard me getting up and gave me a new Iphone and a card with 3 blank coupons.  He made me some blueberry pancakes and even put candles in them for me to blow out and sang Happy Birthday. 

 The kids refused to sing because they had a gift to give me on the Ipad which was a video clip of them singing to me.  They had also made Birthday cards the night before with aunt Heidi.

That afternoon I got to go with mom and Farrah to get a pedicure and buy a few new shirts from Downeast.  They are about the only shirts that cover the belly at this point and I don't want to buy maternity clothes this close to the end so I was happy to have a few new ones.

Our friends Mike and Farrah had hosted a party the night before and had a lot of extra food so they brought us some dinner and took Ella for a little ride on the sled behind the four wheeler.  

As they were gone I got a call that grandpa Bateman had fallen on his knees and an ambulance had to transport him to the hospital where they found he had torn both his quadricep tendons.  OUCH!  Mom had made dinner for my 2 sister in laws and sister since the guys were out of town and invited them over to eat and have cake but we had to do it without her since she needed to be with grandpa.  She was awfully nice to do that.

It was a fun day.  I do feel like I'm getting old it actually seems like I'm older than 31 which is probably because of the condition I am in this week being 31 weeks pregnant and all :)   However, I love life at 31 and am so happy to have these amazing people - family & friends to be with each day and an increased testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I have been so blessed.

Happy Valentines Day!

We have fun celebrating Valentines again this year.  I always like to make sugar cookies the week of Valentines and this year was no exception.  We doubled the recipe so we could deliver to friends, visiting teaching sisters, achievement day girls and for preschool.  

We ended up with about 75 cookies.  :)

I don't think the kids were disappointed.

Molly woke up from her nap and thought she was dreaming in fantasy land.   She wasted no time sprinkling cookies with no sprinkles and eating a couple cookies. 

Then volunteered to start on dishes for me. 

We had the preschool Valentines party at our house.  Along with decorating sugar cookies, we played Valentine Bingo and pin the heart on the dinosaur. 

Ella typed her own cute Valentine up on the computer that said, "You are like SUGAR Valentine" and wanted to include a pixie stick.  However, mom didn't make it to the store to buy any candy so I thought we might could come up with something from things we already had.  Ella came up with the joke and matching papers and I came up with the Hi Chew.  She was so thrilled she hardly slept the night before in anticipation of handing them out and receiving Valentines from others.  I LOVED IT!

When the girls fell asleep I hung about 100 pink paper hearts in their rooms all over the walls and dressers and door.  They were excited to see them when they woke up.  We did Ella's hair in the shape of a heart.

And the girls got pink heart pancakes and strawberry milk for breakfast.  They couldn't have been more happy about that.  Especially considering I have been making them eat cereal most mornings lately. 

Ella came home with lots of loot from school and without hesitation gave it all to her sisters to munch.  She said she had enough at school.  Very kind of her and they wasted no time polishing it off.

I had the opportunity to attend the sealing of the Toussaints, which are friends from the ward.  They had their 3 little kids sealed to them and it was the best way to spend a Valentines Day I decided.  Remembering the eternal covenants we made to our sweetheart.  I sat there (swollen) and so grateful for my good husband that I get to be with forever.

When I got home he wanted to take all the girls out to dinner so he let them choose and of course they wanted to go to Dixie's Diner because that is where he takes them on their date nights with him.  They felt pretty special. 

He even ordered Alissa her favorite cheesecake to share with him. 

And the other 2 girls and I shared a chocolate milkshake.   

What a fun day!  Happy Valentines Day to my special little family.  Sure do love them!

Good Golly Miss Molly

This girl.. seriously makes me laugh and go crazy all at the same time.  A few weeks ago Alissa came running in to tell us she needed some toilet paper.  When we asked her what she needed it for she said, "Come here!"  We followed her out back to see Molly sitting on our little camping portable toilet she had found sitting out and decided she could really use it.  Without hesitation it seems, she pulled down her pants and took care of her business.  

We couldn't help but laugh as we looked at her and she just kept yelling at us, "GO GET ME A WIPE!"

I don't think I've ever seen her use so much soap and wash her hands so well as she did after she had to carry in her disposal using a wipe.  Oh boy..maybe she learned?