May 31st...Ultrasound!

Today Lee and I had our ultrasound appointment.  I'm 18 weeks tomorrow, and we and the kids have been SOOO excited to find out what we're having.

I was inspired by a TV show to make a "gender reveal" cake as our way of telling the kids.  Since I didn't want to wait to tell them, I had to make TWO cakes, one pink and one blue, so we could just cut into the right one when it was time.

Enter the white cake mix, and two round pans...

then I divided the cake mix in half and colored each half! 

Then I decided to make sure *I* didn't get confused at cutting time! 

Just waiting for frosting...!

(Side note:  I bought the new Duncan Hines frosting flavor packets, just to see what they taste like.  We tried Chocolate Marshmallow...Tasted just like regular chocolate to me...but there were some other tasty flavors I'd still like to try!)

Which is which??

Time to cut the cake...Here are the kids, waiting to see...

(Sorry about Michael's foot...What the crazy...?) 

And it's a... 

GIRL!!  :D 

Cheering...And Dancing...Notice that Tory is missing...! 

Oh...THERE he is...Not quite so thrilled about it being a girl.

(I love the look on this boy's face...!) 

All the kids with their "It's a Girl!" cake! 

Daddy's excited, too... 

And a little hungry, too, I guess!  :D 

We are honestly SO thrilled!  It wouldn't have mattered, really, but there is something fun about having my oldest and my youngest be girls.  About having another little girl almost 14 years after I had my first.  I think about the things I will do different...and better!...than I did the first time around.  I've never been a stay-at-home mom of just ONE baby before!  I worked until Tory was 1, and then I did day-care while Spencer and Michael were babies, so there were always at least two...sometimes THREE babies around all day.  

Without this pregnancy, I'd be looking at an upcoming school year where all 5 of my kids would be in school all day, and I'd be moving into a new chapter of keeping myself busy in other ways.  But I think I'd have felt like there were pages missing from this chapter, and I couldn't be happier for a few more years of THIS story!

(Plus, now that I know it's a girl I can start buying all the super cute baby shoes that she doesn't need, but that I might have to have anyway!)

Big News!

Lee and I posted this on Facebook on Saturday:

(Here are their best "secret" faces...!)

(Followed by their "so excited" faces...Spencer's might be my favorite!)

We so excited...Should be a fun time around here!

Easter!

THIS is where most people would have cute little pictures of all their kids in their fancy new Easter clothes...but not me.  I almost never remember to take pictures of THAT...Getting off to church in the morning is busy enough!  And I admit the kids take after me in that as soon as we walk in the door from church, the dress clothes come flying off.  (And I'm not exaggerating!  Often I'm picking up shoes and ties off the stairs on my way up to change out of MY church attire!)

So these are pictures taken in their comfy clothes, at Grandma and Grandpa McAlister's house during the egg hunt.  All the Richins and Wright cousins were there, too!

Sydney...

(Just curious...Is it possible to get a picture of this girl NOT doing this?)

:D 

Megan helping Kara... 

Michael... 

Tory looks like he wishes he was just a little bit taller!

Oh...He got it!

Michael... 

I tried to get a picture of the fact that Michael's t-shirt is inside out! 

 And Spencer.

 All the kiddos after the hunt...And after the all important egg tally, to make sure we don't stink up Grandpa's yard with rotten, forgotten eggs!

Not pictured:  Kendra and I racing on the little car-toys (you can see a red one right behind Syd on the patio!) right behind all theses kids.  I totally won.

But then if I remember correctly I fell on my behind.

Still...A win!  :D

It's Great to be Eight!

Today Spencer was baptized!  Of all my kids who've been baptized, I think he looked forward to his big day the most!  He talked about it for months.  I am proud of this boy for deciding to be baptized.

Here he is with Daddy, who baptized and confirmed him. 

Two proud parents and a special boy: 

 After the baptism, we had anyone who wanted to come over to the house to visit and have some lunch.  My friend Danna came with a few of her kids, and she brought a towel her Mama had made that I really wanted Spencer to have.  It is a white towel with a CTR shield sewn on it, and underneath that is his name and today's date.  (He loves it, and uses it every time he takes a bath or shower!)  

It was great to have all the family over, and I'm so thankful for their support today!  So many great hands helped to bring food, and many awesome spirits helped share the day.  I'm super proud of this handsome little fella.  I can't believe he is eight already!  Where does the time go?!

Mouths of Babes...

Michael's kindergarten class is studying what it means to represent something, or be a symbol of something.  Their class talked about how the National Anthem is a song that unites us as a country, they learned that the Statue of Liberty is a symbol of our country.


His assignment, after that, is to make a power point presentation  to tell about some things that represent his family.  (Really? You remember you teach kindergarten, right?  Amazing how much earlier kids are learning things these days!)


While most of his ideas were pretty much what you'd expect, I wanted to share with you the symbol Michael chose to represent our family:

Yes, folks...That's the great symbol of the McAlister family:  a DVD player!

{Crickets Chirping}

(What?  I didn't say it was a GOOD story...They can't all be funny!)

Happy Superbowl, Everyone!

So I don't really care about football, but any excuse to eat things covered in chocolate is a winner for me!  

So yes, Happy Superbowl, everyone!

Random Wednesday Delight!

Wednesday:  One of the best days of the week

1. My "weekend" from Walmart starts today...which means:
2. I get to wear my favorite pair of pajamas ALL DAY!  (We all know how happy THAT makes me, right?
3. American Idol, followed by Mobbed...!

So obviously some GREAT things to look forward to.  I was sitting at the computer working away at my data entry job, when the doorbell rang.  I was right in the middle of processing an account, and I was getting close to having to leave to pick up Michael from school...I hate leaving them unfinished, so I debated about answering the door.

In the end, I was so glad I did!  Otherwise, I'd have missed signing for the FLOWERS my awesome husband sent me!!  He sent them to thank me and tell me how much he loves me...You know, without words!  :D

Lee, thanks for one more reason to love Wednesday this week!  I love you!

For my beautiful daughters...!

Source: suzytoronto.com via Kimberly on Pinterest

Family Vacation, Day 8-9

Saturday, November 5-Sunday, November 6, 2011

We left California Saturday morning, but decided to stay the night in Vegas before heading home on Sunday.  The weather was a little better, but still chilly.  But the pool in Vegas was warm, and the kids LOVED the pool.  Heather and I sat in chairs with towels over us as blankets and watched them.  We just lounged...after a week of "Go, go, go"-ing, it was a nice change.  We ate dinner at Marie Calendar's where Spencer only wanted cornbread if there wasn't corn in it.  (What?)  We left Sunday morning, and headed home, and that was the end of that.  An uneventful drive (Good news!) except that if I hadn't followed Megan into the same rest stop bathroom stall after she was done, someone would have gotten a brand new iPod Touch in there after us!  (Oh, she'd have been SO sad...!)  

Heather...

Fun things about bringing Heather on a vacation:

• She taught my family about puns...Apparently we don't use them enough in our house, because they weren't sure at first what a pun was.  They're good now.  And still practicing!
• I love the things Heather gets excited about.  She's like a kid, only she always listens and does what you ask.  (She's not naughty at ALL!)
• She is very laid back...No agenda.  She goes with the flow.
• Heather does this awesome thing on vacations where she just brings a small notebook and writes down little notes all day...Funny things someone said, or what we did, things we laughed at.  Reading through those is such a fun reminder of things that usually get forgotten by the time you get home to write them down.
• Plus, Heather is just awesome.

Some other fun Heather stories:

• Heather and Lee were sitting in the Ferris Wheel (which they both hate!) and every time our car would slide in or out, Lee would grab onto Megan and Sydney's legs and squeeze.  At one point, Heather's hand was on Megan's leg...so he squeezed her hand instead.  Heather...No flirting with my husband!  (And Lee, no flirting with my sister!)
• When we were changing to go swimming in Vegas, Heather pulled up a dining chair right outside the door so when we opened it she was sitting RIGHT THERE!
• In our Vegas condo, Lee and I were saying goodnight to the kids, and when we walked out after and headed toward our room, Heather was in our bed calling Lee.

I just love Heather!  She is really fun to spend time with.  She is thoughtful, she's funny, and she loves STUFF...It doesn't matter what it is.  There is just a joy and delight to everything she does, and I think it is contagious.  She makes things more fun for all of us!  Thanks for coming with us, Heather!  

Family Vacation, Day 7

Friday, November 4, 2011

Our last day at Disneyland!

Do you just love the face Sydney is making here?  Her "Um...Okay, if I have to stand by the Storm Trooper...!" look.

So not a ton of pictures today!  It had rained overnight, so everything was wet when we got there, but it wasn't raining.  We had about 3 hours of dry time to go around and do our favorites one last time...And then it just started to POUR!!  The bummer was that it rained so much we got soaked and were cold and miserable.  The up side was that by then, we had already done everything, and most things more than once!  So we stood looking longingly at the park for just a few more minutes, and then we decided to go back to our room, get dry, and just rent a movie or something...Which we did.  And it was delightful!

This probably won't be nearly as funny to everyone else as it was to those of us who were there, but I'm putting in here anyway!  We felt bad that because we had kids in the living room AND in the room where Heather was sleeping she had to go to bed when they did.  So we started inviting her into our room when we put the kids down so she could join us for some dessert and a little TV.  (Usually Food Network...)  Luckily, the room we were in had a random chair...which I pulled away from the closet and closer to the bed, so she could see the TV better.  That first night, Heather looked over at us sitting in the bed while she was sitting in a chair next to the bed and said, "This is kind of awkward."

Thus a new joke was born.  From then on, we would invite her into the awkward room to sit on the random chair.  We have since texted her pictures of the chairs in our bedroom at home, with dessert sitting on the table, telling her she was late for Awkward Time...!

(Don't you just love Heather?)

Family Vacation, Day 6!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Day 4 of Disneyland!

Eeyore! 

Sydney! 

My cute hubby! 

We had lunch at the little western cookout place inside Disneyland.  They called all the kids up to help sing Davy Crockett.  MOST of my kids were nice enough to stand together for this.  Tory, however, picked the OTHER side of the stage!

  

See?  You can see Sydney, Megan, Spencer, and "Hat-Hat".

  

And there in the back on the left you can see Tory...

The one thing Michael wanted to do every time we passed it was to go into the Wilderness Explorer Camp (From "Up") and earn his badge.  We put it off for a few days, but today we finally caved!

The had different stations where you had to do different things (rope climbing, watching for different animal foot prints, swing on a tire swing, etc.) and when you finished them all you would head to the ceremony where they'd make you Wilderness Explorers!

Here's Russell! 

So now we're officially Wilderness Explorers!  Go us.