Fall Family Photo Shoot

Catch up...

I have a TON of catching up to do on here...I haven't posted Halloween pictures, Logan's birthday pictures, our family pictures, Thanksgiving pictures, pictures of Logan and Elly's new fort, pictures from the LHS Christmas program, pictures from the surprise trip that Jarrod took me on to NYC...so, I will put some of these up soon, I know I will...tomorrow is the last day of school for us until January, so surely I'll be able to get some pictures downloaded and posted and some thoughts thrown in there too...for now, I want to focus on today...

Today was a big day. We had our "big" ultrasound today--although it doesn't seem as "big" when you have to turn away from the screen and you leave with no gender information. However, we were very excited to see this little bit and all it was busy doing...kicking around, playing with its feet and just "hanging out" in there. It is very healthy with a heart rate of 155 and no complications to note!

We also had Elly's 15 month doctor's visit and Logan's 5 year doctor visit. They both are doing well, although there seems to be some concern that Elly may have a lazy right eye (the same one that I have, actually) and that Logan's hernia is not closed...we're going to watch both and the doctor will check Elly's eyes again at 18 months and if there is still concern, she will send her to an optomologist at that point. If Logan's hernia hasn't completely closed by summer, we will have to go the surgery route and take care of it before he starts Kinder in the fall.

Logan weighed in at 39 pounds and 44 inches tall.
Elly weighed in at 21 pounds and 29.5 inches tall.

And Baby Makes 3...Children that is...

I'm not quite sure why its taken me so long to post this...maybe its the morning sickness, the tiredness, or the "surprise" factor of it, but whatever the reason...we are all set and ready to welcome sweet Dyer baby #3 into our family in April of 2010. We are all ecstatic over the news and getting ourselves ready. We were expecting to start trying for another baby after Elly turned a year old, but God had a different plan and surprised us with finding out we were pregnant near her first birthday. So, in keeping with that theme, we are going to let this one be a complete surprise. Yes, you are reading that correctly--never in a million years did either of us think that we wouldn't find out the gender, but here we are with one boy, one girl and a ton of clothes and baby bedding for each...so we are going to find out on this little munchkin's birthday if we will welcome another sweet baby boy or another precious baby girl. We are planning to have a name and a baby outfit for whichever this one turns out to be, but we will wait to do a nursery until after baby3 arrives.

Fall Festival 2009

We had our church fall festival this past weekend and the kids had a blast as usual.

Elly and her "Honey"

Logan loves Ella, but wasn't so thrilled with the Arial hair

Lawson and Logan

Payton and Logan

Logan and Presley

Logan and Derian--he misses him at school so much!!

Logan and Baylor--future Aggie football players

Sweet Baby girls-Elly and Presley

Elly and Daddy

Today

**No pictures, no kid stories...just me blogging...**

There have been way too many days lately where I've felt really crummy. Today was the first day in the recent past that I've felt GREAT! The kids were both feeling much better today also for the first time in a pretty long time too. So, we celebrated by having a pj day and doing some things that we haven't done in a while. We cooked together, played upstairs together, the kids and Jarrod played outside after work while I cooked dinner...and yes, Elly was still playing in her pjs in the misting rain--and loving every minute of it. All in all, it was a FUN, FUN day--not a day full of "out of the ordinary" memories, but a day to look at and go "this is what life's all about." A day that hopefully my kids will remember in a long line of days like today as the "normal, when we were kids" days.

One of my favorite blogs is Money Saving Mom's blog and I'm on there every day that I get on the computer. She not only posts great deals, she posts financial success stories of her family, she has guest posts, meal planning, her grocery store purchases for the week and my newfound favorite--recipes. The thing that I love is that I relate SO well to her (with the exception that I consider her wonder woman--I could never accomplish half of what she does and stay sane, but I digress)...I love to cook, we have nearly the same number and ages of kids, she is frugal, but not cheap. Everyone who knows me knows that I love a good deal, but part of that is that I would NEVER consider myself cheap. I do not want cheap things, I want good, quality things at GREAT prices--there is a HUGE difference. I have a Dyson vacuum cleaner that I got at a great price, I have an amazing washer and dryer that my husband negotiated for at a phenomenal price, I have a great car that again, my husband negotiated a great deal on. God has blessed us with a home that is above what we dreamed of, that again, he provided for us at an exceptional price. I don't pay full price for anything, really if I can help it. There are some exceptions, but if it is a "desire" item and not something that I see as a "need" chances are its not happening--especially if it is something for myself. I know that I'm in for it when my kids are teenagers and wanting the most popular, now items...but I will scour to find the best deal on those things, I'm sure...

If you've gotten this far, I'm sure you are wondering how in the world this relates to my great day with my kids. Well, last week, Money Saving Mom posted a "baking day" and posted throughout the day what she was making. So, while Elly took her morning nap, Logan and I decided to try a new recipe that MSM had posted--pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. Let me assure you that these were/are the best muffins I've ever had. The recipe makes 30 muffins and you can freeze them after they've cooled down to have tasty treats for many days to come. The best part was that I already had all of the ingredients on hand. Well, after this was such a success, I decided to make another recipe that she posted about for dinner tomorrow. She had doubled her recipe and then divided it into thirds to freeze and have for dinners in the future, so I followed her lead and again, was not disappointed--this is a great, easy, inexpensive way to make chicken tetrazinni--and I didn't even miss some of the extra, more expensive ingredients. Plus it only took me 30 minutes to make and I now have 3 meals...fantastic!!! Next on my list to make with Logan (maybe next week) is Whole Wheat Waffles...we love waffles and I often feed the kids Eggos in a hurry, so I'm excited to try these and freeze some for a little healthier alternative on school days.

Replacement

I LOVED my old camera; however, it died on the first day of school, leaving me pictureless (other than the sweet picture my friend Lisa took of Logan) and also camera-less...so I am now the proud new owner of this beauty:

Logan's first Aggie game at Kyle Field

We had such a blast taking Logan to College Station in September. It was a fast trip, going down after his first soccer game, going to the A&M game and then trekking back after the game, but it was so much fun and Logan was pretty priceless. I hope that he will always remember how much fun he had--I know that Jarrod and I will. We took him to eat at Layne's before the game, then got there in time to watch the band march in, go to the MSC bookstore, and then go get our seats for the game.

How many times have we made this haul up to our seats? I hope our kids will make it many times as well!! (thankfully, we were on first deck, so it wasn't nearly as bad as it used to be!)

Pre-game

I love this picture because you rarely capture this genuine laughing smile with sweet Logan.

After the game-on the field