Look out, Here Comes Thing Three....

So I am expecting baby number four!!!  Yay! And I wanted to tell my family in a creative way because I have never been able to keep being pregnant a secret long enough to tell anyone in a creative way.  So Lily was Cat in the hat for book week and so I decided to go on a Dr. Suess theme and write a poem that sounded like Dr. Suess.  Then I thought Lily could dress as Cat in the hat and Will and Ava could be thing one and thing two and the new baby could be thing three.  It ended up being as cheesy as it sounds, but it was still fun to do.  So here are a few of the pictures that we sent home to family and the poem that went with it.  :)

 We are such photogenic people!  Hahahaha!

Here's my corny poem:

It's Halloween time, 
So we're sending a rhyme.
The cat in the hat has some very good news,
That she can hardly wait to tell all of yous. 
So fast as a fox, 
Let's look in cat's box. 
In her box are two things, 
You will see something new. 
Two things. The cat calls them
Thing one and thing two.
But when the cat opened the box, 
She found a surprise.
The cat in the hat could not believe her eyes.
Instead of two things in the box, there were three! 
Three things in the box? Oh my, my, how could that be?
Thing one and thing two ran out fast to come play.
But thing three won't come join them until the beginning of May. 

We can all hardly wait to meet thing three!  :) 

Last Day of October School Holidays and More...

We went on a bike ride to the park on the last day of school holidays in October.  It was a beautiful day and even Will rode his "bike" all the way to the park.

 Here is Will on his bike.  I brought the stroller just in case, and I was glad because I did end up needing it on the way home.  Will's bike hung nicely on the stroller handle.

 Here are all three eating the picnic they packed.

 Here are the girls new bikes.  I actually bought them something brand new and for no particular reason.  It was a strange day, I was having a real lapse in judgment that day.  Haha, just kidding, they did need new bikes.  Look how big Lily's bike is.  I cannot believe I have a child that fits on that huge thing!

 You gotta love Ava's passenger riding in the front of her bike.  Cute little stuffed bunny.

 Here are all the kids swinging.  Lily is being the super big sister that she is, pushing Will and not even caring if she got a turn to swing.  And Ava was even swinging herself on her stomach.  I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do.  :)  Just sit back and admire. :)

 Here we are on our way home.  Will and Lily waiting for our little slow poke, Ava.  :)

 Here she comes.  :)

 The next day it was back to school for their fourth and final term of this school year.  I can't believe it is almost been a year!

Here is just a few more random pictures I decided to throw in this post.  This was the gross looking spider that decided to emerge from who knows where on the treadmill while I was having a nice little run.  I know it looks small, but it creeped me out.  I did finish the run but I kept my distance.  I turned off the treadmill and ran to go find something to smash it with, but it was gone.  It came out to play again another time and that time, I had Cory smash it.

 My super perceptive friend, Ali, made us dinner one night just out of the blue because she said that I seemed really tired.  Now no one wants to hear that, but if it gets me a dinner that I don't have to cook, I'll take it.  And she was right, I was really tired.  I wanted to text her a picture of the kids enjoying the food, but look at my picky eater, Ava, plugging her nose!  I did take another one that I forced her to at least smile in, no matter how bad she thought the food smelled.  And for the record, it was delicious.  Can't be offended by someone who thinks plain noodles and plain browned ground beef is the best meal ever.

 One day when I was taking a shower, Will helped himself to Ava's pillow and blanket and made himself a bed and took a nap.  Love that kid.

 Here is Will after an afternoon swim.  He is a swimming maniac.  He loves the pool! Which is very good news since it is the only thing we have for entertainment around here.

 Ava really loves to put on my clothes and shoes lately.  She's pretty cute with big feet.  :)

 One night we heard fireworks going off, so we all ran outside to the yard to see if we could see them.  And we could.  These pictures are terrible, but the kids had a fun time watching a firework show from the yard.  Not sure what they were for.

Personal Progress

So I am the personal progress leader in my ward Young Womens and I am trying to help inspire them to actually do the personal progress goals by doing the goals myself as well.
So the reason I am blogging about this is because, my blog is my journal and after almost every value experience you complete, you're supposed to record things about it in your journal. So feel free to read, or skip any post titled Personal Progress.
Divine Nature Value Experience #1
I read "The Family:A Proclamation to the world", 2 Peter 1, Alma 7:23-24, and D&C 121:45. While reading these scriptures and inspired documents, I was pondering the question, what are some divine qualities of a daughter of God? Here are just a few ideas that came to me during my study.
First off, one of our most divine qualities as daughters of God is that we are created in His image. We were created to look just like God. Can't get much more divine than that. Next, I read that we are each beloved of our Heavenly Parents. Just the very thought of this encourages me to develop my divine qualities. And by being a daughter of God, I have been given characteristics that will help me develop my divine qualities.
When I read the scriptures in this value experience I learned a lot of divine qualities. Faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, charity, humility and submissive to name a few. It seems very overwhelming to try and develop all these divine qualities. But then I remember that God has created me in his image and He blessed me with divine qualities. Heavenly father also gave us the scriptures with detailed instructions on how to develop divine qualities. In Alma 23 it tells us to be humble and submissive and easily entreated, keeping the commandments at all times and that is how we will develop these qualities. Also in D&C 121:45 it tells us to let virtue garnish our thoughts unceasingly and that is another way we can be able to develop divine qualities.
So I am going to try to be more charitable and I am going to do this by trying to be full of long suffering and patience like it says to do in Alma. I know my Father in Heaven loves me an I am grateful for all that He has blessed me with.

Will Monsters 2nd Birthday

Our favorite little Will turned 2 on October 10th.  Oh, what can't you say about Will?  We are all quite smitten by the little cutie.  He loves to read books, play cars and trains, play in the dirt, play ring around the rosies, duck, duck, goose, and hide and seek.  He loves to laugh and play with his sisters.  He is great at giving hugs and kisses.  He has so many cute phrases in his arsenal of phrases.  Here are some of my favorite: "Come on" "That's funny" Mmmm, delicious."  "Scuse me" "it's dark in here" "what ya doin?" "Finished" "You okay?" "Found you!" "in my room...hurry!" He also has the cutest little growl that he says with some of these phrases.  He is so very manly.  We sure love our little Will monster and we couldn't imagine our lives without him.

We had so much fun on Will's birthday.  It was a perfect day.  We had a little get together at a park with some friends.  Two days before the temperature was at 104, so I was worried we would be roasting at the park. Then the day before Will's birthday, it was 50 degrees and raining, so I was worried we might have to move the location.  But on the day, it was a beautiful 78 degrees with a cool after rain feeling, it was perfect!
The kids were playing out back before we left for the park so I tried to snap a picture of all three before we left, but Will was not having it.

 Neither was Lily, apparently!  Haha!

At the park, we decorated monster cupcakes and had heaps of friends come join us. It was great fun.  :)

 Annabelle with her cute monster cupcake.

 Lily with her monster cupcake.  She is trying to show off it's long rainbow tongue and it distracted by something.  Man, she was not very photogenic on this day!

 Isaac, Will's self appointed best friend, decorating his cupcake.

 Bella with her cupcake.

 We were at the park for about 2 hours and I think Will was on this thing for an hour and 45 minutes of the time.  The only time he would get off was when I would go over and physically remove him.  He would play on something else for a minute and then the next time I would be looking around the playground for Will, he would be right back on the horse.  Lucky for him, there were always big kids around willing to push him around and around.

 Little Natalie.

 Party on the boat. :)

 One of the times I managed to get Will to play on something else other than the merry-go-round.

 After Will's fun filled party at the park, we really went all out and went to McDonald's for lunch!  This really is a huge splurge and rare occurrence since moving to Australia.  We never go there, and if we do it is just for 30 cent ice cream cones.  This time each of the kids got their own happy meal!  That literally never happens.  But it was Will's day, so we went to Macca's.

 I was trying to capture Will's excitement waiting in line to order, he was literally jumping up and down, saying, Yay!

 After all that excitement, Will was completely tired out.  He took a good nap, ready for round two of birthday fun.  :)

That evening after the nap, it was present and cake time.

 
Will had a huge stack for presents, thanks to the grandparents and the delivery boy, Bradyn.

 Unfortunately, Will had zero interest in opening any of them.  So the girls enjoyed doing it for him, while he played with whatever was opened next.

Once the train set was open it was all down hill from there.  Couldn't get him to do anything but play with his trains, and if you dared to touch one of his trains, oh boy, you suffered the wrath of Will.  He was a bit possessive at first, but he has since mellowed out and anyone can drive his trains now.  Phew!

 Watch out, Lily, you're going to get told off by Will!  He was seriously so crazy, it was hilarious!

 One of the cool planes Grandma Rappleye sent.  Too bad you can't hear his sound effects!  To die for!

 Grandma Kris sent this really cute monster towel that she made.  It's adorable and Will loves it!  But on his birthday he wouldn't come near it.  But the girls had fun modeling it.

Lily Monster.

 Ava Monster.

 Myserty monster???

 Then finally it was time for cake and ice cream.

 Little Will monster with his monster cake.

 Happy birthday dear Will, we love you more than you will ever know!

 We finished the day off with a "sleepover" The kids all wanted to sleep on the pull out couch during school holidays, so I thought what better day than on Will's birthday?  Here they are all settled in.

 Will didn't actually sleep there, but the girls did.  What a great birthday for a great kid!