Fall.....I love it!

I love this time of year - definitely my favorite! Especially here in Arizona when it FINALLY cools down. I love everything about fall - pumpkins, scarecrows, caramel apples, colorful leaves, halloween, thanksgiving, getting ready for christmas. . . . you get the idea. I just love it.

This year we went to Schnepf Farms for the first time. We all had a great time - kids and parents alike! It was so fun and my kiddos were so dang good - very uncharacteristic for them. No fits, no whining, no tears. These are all things that usually happen during family outings - but we lucked out this time. Kaden especially loved it and wanted to try everything. He is not usually that daring, but he jumped right in and wanted to try everything we saw - even the big huge tunnel slide. He informed us he wanted to do it all by himself - and he did! You never can tell with kids - as soon as you think you can predict how they will react - they surprise you! Anyway - here are some pictures from our adventure.

And we made caramel apples for the first time. I can't figure out why I have never done this before with my kids - I love caramel apples and they had a blast. Well, it will definitely be a tradition from now on!

We're having a . . . .

GIRL!!!! We had our ultrasound this morning - everything looks great! And we found out we are having a girl! I'm so excited to be having another girl! Kaden went with us to the appointment. He got to see the baby on the TV and hear the heartbeat - he was pretty excited. My due date stayed the same - so little Lexie (hopefully will be her name) should arrive the first week of March!

The pictures aren't fabulous - but the baby wasn't cooperating very well. Hopefully we will get some better ones at the next sonogram. I'm just excited to know what I am having - it makes it so much more real for me and easier to bond with the baby. Not to mention that now I can start planning and preparing - my favorite part!

Such a Good Mix

We were at the park earlier today and someone commented on how well Bailey was doing on her own. She was climbing up the jungle gym, going down the slide face first, digging in the sand, and pretty much keeping up with her big brother! It got me thinking about what a great mix she is. She loves to play outside and get dirty, hot, and sweaty:

But she is also such a girly girl. She loves phones, purses, shoes, dress up clothes, playing princess, and MAKEUP! Yep . . . . that is lipstick all over her face! I probably should have been mad - but it was so dang funny. Matt and I just about died laughing! She was so proud of herself!

I just think Bailey is such a great mix of being a girly girl and being able to play hard with the boys! Kaden on the other hand is pure boy through and through. Anything that could be considered feminine - Kaden says is either digusting or dangerous (that's his new favorite word). What a dork - but I love him!

Just a side note - the last time I stopped by the dollor store the kids got to pick out one toy. Bailey went straight for the crown and earings that she is wearing above. Kaden went straight for the pirate sword. Man, I love the dollor store! These toys have entertained them for hours!

News!

So it has been FOREVER since I have posted on here. Life has been hectic! We have a lot going on and lots of news to share - so hopefully this post doesn't get too long!

Well, the first piece of news is that I am pregnant! We are expecting our third child on March 6th. We have known for awhile and were not going to tell anyone til I was 12 weeks - but I'm too much of a ditz and I kept accidently mentioning things about it. So I am about 18 weeks along and we are having an ultrasound on Friday and will hopefully find out what we are having. Kaden is thrilled to be having a baby! He keeps asking questions all about it - one of his first questions was if the baby could sleep in his room so he could take care of her (he insists it is a girl). And just today he asked "Mom, how did the baby get into your belly?" As I was stumbling, trying to think of an appropriate 3-year old answer he asks "Did you eat it? Is that how it got in your belly?" And then he was onto another subject - so luckily I avoided that conversation. We are all very excited to add a baby to our family. I am more excited now that I am feeling better and am over the first trimester of feeling tired and sick.

So our next piece of news is that we bought a new house! Here's a view of the model:

Ours will look almost exactly like this, since it is the same elevation and color scheme. We just went to the design center a few days ago and here are some of our options:

We are very excited about the new house. It will be nice to have more room - but that's not really the main reason for buying it. We could fit in this house for awhile still, but the time just seemed to be right. Matt and I actually looked at this house probably 2 years ago and fell in love with it - but it was no where near our price range. We weren't really even shopping for a new house - Matt was just looking up floor plans online (something we do fairly often) and happened to see this one again. The price was about $130 thousand less than it was two years ago (in the middle of the "boom"). So long story short . . . we went and looked at it again . . . still loved the house . . . thought about it for a few days . . . and signed on the house! It should be done somewhere between March - May of next year. Which is good because it gives us time to sell our house - but also bad because that is right when the baby is due!

So that is the next issue - trying to sell our house. We have had it on the market for about 6 weeks now, and have had a few people come look (one that seemed fairly interested) but the market right now is awful! It's a great time to buy a house, but a lousy time to sell. It is a lot of work and stress trying to keep a house clean all the time, just in case. I'm just hoping that we are able to sell this house - because if not - we are really screwed! But we are trying to be optimistic and Matt insists that we will sell it - it's just a matter of how much we will make on it. We're keeping our fingers crossed!

Here is our floorplan:

http://www.sheahomes.com/cfm/miscellaneous/floorplan.cfm?planid=1546

Ours has the extended laundry room and the 4th bed / 3rd bath upstairs.

Here's a virtual tour:

http://www.sheahomes.com/cfm/miscellaneous/virtualtour_set.cfm?planid=1546

Hopefully I did the links right and they work!

Well, that's what we have been up to. Hopefully I will be a little better at updating this (although I'm not sure anyone reads it anyway). I enjoy reading all of my friends blogs and they are so good about updating theirs - I figured I was long overdue! Here's some more random pictures of the model: