Blech

And the barfing commences....must be a girl. Or twins. :-p

Hello Dolly Dance Popcorn Pajama Party

Rachel loves musicals. Like absolutely loves them. We don't watch much tv at our house at all. The kids watch maybe a 1/2 show every over day about and we have a family movie party once a week. We NEVER watch longer movies during the day. For about the last month Rachel has been requesting Hello Dolly for our movie night but because it is a long one, Jacob has been rejecting it. Finally Sunday, I promised  her we could watch it one day this week while dad was at work. She picked Friday for our party and  as the week went on she added more and more plans to our party until it was a Hello Dolly Popcorn Pajama Dance Party. I love my Rachel-girl!  I better go, our party is starting. :D

Guess what!!!

(Sorry for all the blurry pictures. These kids are wiggly!)

Yep, that's right folks, Baby Bulloch number 3 is on its way coming September and we couldn't be more thrilled! 

We are about 10 weeks along (we think). Just this week I've started feeling sick which is an improvement from Rachel, but a step backwards from when I was pregnant with Kent. In fact, even though we have no way to really know what we are having yet, our guess is a girl because of certain food aversions and just over all sicky feelings. 

At the end of January I was positive I was pregnant and I took a pregnancy test I was really confused because it said I wasn't pregnant. (I used the cheapest of the cheap ones.) Two weeks later (on Valentine's Day), I still hadn't started so I took another one (again the cheapest of the cheap ones), this time expecting it to be negative, because of the other one, and it wasn't. Because I had a negative test and then a positive one, I question the dates and when we are due. So we will just have to wait til I get my first ultrasound to see when this little one is coming, but for now I am claiming 10 (almost 11) weeks. :) We are sooooo excited! We've actually been trying for this one for quite a while (it took longer than we expected this time) but we trust the Lord and his timing for our family. I just wish we knew now if it was going to be a boy or a girl. Like I said, we have our suspicions, but I want to know!

Rachel is super cute and super excited about it and keeps telling me she wants it to be a girl, and a boy, but a girl first. And Kent is cute and he likes to kiss my tummy (even though I don't look obviously pregnant yet.) Jacob and I are just happy our family is growing again. 

Did it work?

I just updated Quick Time on my computer to see if I could get my videos to work, cause I get some cute ones of my funny kids.

Did it work?

Painted toe nails

I forgot how happy it makes me to have my toenails freshly painted. I haven't painted my nails since December! In fact I had to get the red and green residue off of my toes before I could start! I remember in high school, my mom and sister and I would paint our toenails every week!! It's interesting what having responsibilities and a kids does to your once important priorities. Lately I've been that mom that spends all her time getting her kids ready that she forgets to get herself ready before she leaves the house, which I think is wrong. Yes my kids are my priority, but I also think I need to show them by example how to take care of themselves. I will start by painting my toenails. It isn't much, but it's a start. Maybe next week I'll actually do my hair. :) 

Now that my nails are painted though, I really don't want to do dishes. :s

Crazy

Feeling like a crazy person today!

A Bath

So I've been watching my friends kids a lot the weekend (she's in the hospital) and on Saturday I gave all the kids a bath. My kids in one bathroom and her kids in the other. I got Kent out of the tub first, took him to his room and got him dressed. Then I went in to check on the girls in the other bathroom really quick and back in to check on Rachel. Well when I went into check on Rachel, guess who was in the tub with her. A fully clothed Kent. Apparently as soon as I was done getting him dressed, she ran and jumped back into the tub. He must not have thought he was clean enough. The next time I had Jacob watch him once I got him out so that he would stay dry. He's such a funny stinker!

18 months

I cant believe my crazy Kent dude is 18 months already. He is officially old enough to go to nursery (although technically he's been going for months because Jacob and I are called to the nursery). 

Our kent boy is so much fun and so busy and so extremely cute and funny! He makes me crazy one minute and the next minute I can't help but laugh because of some cute or funny thing he is saying or doing. 

He loves Rachel and wants to do EVERYTHING she is doing! It's so cute to see how much he adores her. I'm grateful she is a pretty good girl since he wants to be just like her.

Kent love love loves to tease and be teased. He gets this super cute twinkle in his eye and a really happy smile on his face when he is teasing or being teased.

Kent loves to help his mama. He likes to "help" with dishes especially.

Kent loves to read books. For a while there I was worried that he wouldn't like them because he has just always been soooooo wiggly and never had the patience for them, but he finally decided he likes them.

He's very good at making messes. 

Kent loves to hug and kiss babies (real and pretend ones), but if I ask him for a kiss he wrinkles up his nose (with a grin on his face and a twinkle in his eye) and says "Nooooo!" He does it to tease me and thinks he's hilarious.

Kent loves knock knock jokes. He will say knock knock over and over and over again until you say who's there. Then his response is always the same. He says "Moooooo!" And then he cracks up and looks pleased with himself. Rachel also likes knock knock jokes which is where he gets it from.

Kent loves to play outside and he loves the park. His very favorite thing to do at the park is swing. If I let him, he will swing the entire time we are at the park. He likes baby swings or the normal swings equally, it just depends on of Rachel is swinging too because if she is than he wants to be on a big swing like her. 

Kent is tough. He gets bonks and crashes like crazy and unless he is quite hurt (or quite tired) he just ignores it.

He has a competitive streak. If I am trying to get him to eat dinner and he isn't interested (which isn't often) if I pretend to eat it he grabs it as fast as he can and shoves it in his mouth and laughs about it. 

He loves to sing and it is seriously the cutest thing to hear him singing in his cute little voice. He is also starting to say prayers and read scriptures (meaning he says what we tell him to) and it is soooo cute! I love hearing him say Lamenites and city in his sweet little toddler voice.

He still doesn't sleep through the night. I'm convinced he never will. He goes back to sleep pretty easily when he does wake up during the night but I usually fall asleep in his room (on the ground) waiting for him to fall asleep. He makes me tired. He also wakes up much earlier than he should in the morning. 

He loves to FaceTime with his grandparents and gets really excited when we get out the iPad to call them.

He weighs almost 30 pounds.

We started and stopped potty training him a little bit ago and I need to get my act together and finish it up. I stopped because I have had people needing me to watch their kids a lot and it is too hard for me to watch extra kids and potty train at the same time. I am watching someone's kids again tomorrow, but them maybe on Tuesday I can get busy and potty training again (or maybe not). We will see.

(I didn't realize until I put this on here that it kinda looks like I'm choking him in this picture, but I'm not! I promise!)

I just love this little Kent boy so much! I can't imagine my life with out him. I can hardly think about him with out smiling. I love his bright, funny, wild, and sweet personality.

Healthy Challenge

I just started an 8 week healthy challenge with my mom and sisters on Tuesday, and it came at a good time! We've been wanting to be more healthy, but sugar is so yummy that we've been having a hard time finding the motivation. Looking for some motivation? Here are the rules we are going by:

3 pts: Stop eating before 9 pm
3 pts: 2 Fruit Servings (1/2 cup each)
5 pts: 3 Vegetable Servings (1/2 cup each except leafy greens are 1 cup each)
5 pts: No Sweets/Sugary Treats (only 6 days a week)
5 pts: Keep a Food Journal
5 pts: 30 min. exercise OR 7 pts: 45 min. exercise (only 5 days a week)
1 pt: connect with team member 3 PTA: drink 64 oz of water daily TOTAL POINTS: (205 possible for the week) I am loving this! I forgot how motivating it is to eat good things when you have to write down what you eat. Especially if you are using a calorie counter. I recommend the app My Fitness Pal. Also, I was drinking way too little water and I feel better now that I've changed that simple thing.  I just thought I would share because I've been wanting something to motivate me for quite a while now and this is the thing to do it. Good luck anyone else who decides to try it! (Oh and if your still on the fence about it, I've lost 3 pounds since we started!)

A bear!

Rachel woke up to go to the bathroom during the night. Usually she is pretty good to get up, go, and get back in bed by herself, although sometimes she wakes up and bawls the whole time til she gets back in bed. Last night she was doing her bawly thing and on her way out of the bathroom she gave a really loud yell which woke up her brother (and the rest of us as well). I went and asked her what was going on and she asked very sweetly for a a hug and a kids. Of course I complied and then went to put Kent back to bed. This morning I talked to her about last night and about trying to be quiet when she gets up in the middle of the night so that she doesn't wake anyone else up. Then I asked her what made her yell so loud last night and this was her response:

"I saw my shadow and thought it was a bear!"

I think I would have yelled too if I thought I was seeing a bear. Poor girl! 

Bath time!

So, I told the kids that it was time to take a bath. When I got upstairs, this is what I found. Silly kid! At least he hadn't turned the water on! 

Presidents Day!

I love Presidents' Day! Can I just tell you I love Presidents' Day? I also love that while we are here in Monterey any federal holiday turns into a 4 day weekend. That means this weekend Jacob got Presidents' Day and Valentines Day off! I love holidays a lot. I like doing fun themed things for them. But I also like the random holidays that don't come with any expectations besides a day off, like Presidents' Day or Memorial Day or Labor Day. There is a cute duck pond in town where you can rent paddle boats and go out and paddle around for a while. I've been wanting to do it ever since we were here the first time. We took our crusts that we have been saving for the last month or so and went and fed ducks (well actually mostly just seagulls this time) and went for a ride on the paddle boat. Rachel didn't love it as much as I thought she would (the boat part) but I think it's cause we had to wear life jackets and they weren't very comfortable. The kids loved feeding the birds though! Afterwards we walked to the fishermans wharf and tried a million types of clam chowder and got lunch and a treat before going home. We had lots of fun! Then we came home and took naps and the maintainance guys came and fixed our dishwasher that's been broken for a week. I was so glad! We ended the day with family night, and feeling blessed. I love my cute family!  Happy Presidents' Day everyone! 

Look who figured out the dead bolt this week!

I'm in trouble!

Kiss? Baby?

I was kissing Kent good night tonight, and he held up his baby (that he has to sleep with every night) for me and asked me to kiss it too. I kisses his baby on the head and he said "aw!" In a cute little voice. He cracks me up. He loves his baby. He hugs it and kisses it and feeds it and wraps it in a blankie. It makes me laugh because he is such a big tough boy, and yet he is so sweet with his baby!  When I babysat a baby this week a few times, Rachel kept asking to hold him. Well Kent decided he needed to hold the baby too and he was super sweet with him, hugging him and giving him hugs. It just melted my heart. 

The Wizard of Oz

I just wanted to share something that I thought was super cute. So Rachel and I just got done reading an abridged version of The Wizard of Oz. After we are done with a chapter book, we try to watch the movie if there is one. We watched The Wizard of Oz last night with the kids and Rachel was super excited about it. She had been pretending to be Dorstht for days and had been acting out scenes from the book and was REALLY excited to see the movie. She was really into the movie and even asked us to pause it so she could go potty part way through so she wouldn't miss anything. Anyway, at the end, where Dorathy is saying good bye to her friends from Oz, and is crying, Rachel starts crying. She was sad because they were sad in the movie. And afterwards when we were talking about things that were different in the book and movie, she said, "And Dorothy doesn't cry in the book!" I thought it was sweet. It showed her sensitive side. Rachel hasn't ever cried before because of a story in a book or a movie. I just thought it was super cute and sweet. I love my cute sensitive girl!

Happy Valentines Day

Having kids on holidays is so much fun! It's fun to make things special for them and see them enjoy the little things. Their expectations are so much lower and just the simplest things make them happy. 

We didn't do much today for Valentines. We had heart food all day, the valentines fairy came and put hearts on our doors, the sister missionaries came over for dinner, and I took the kids to the library this morning. Really not a whole lot of extra things, but still the kids were happy and excited. Being a mom and getting to be around my kids all day is the best job ever!!

Here is a picture of our pink strawberry heart pancakes we had for breakfast.

Rachel's heart hair (sorta).

Our heart lunches:

And I totally forgot to take pictures of our heart dinner and dessert! We had heart pizzas and a heart cake. Rachel was especially excited for the cake. In fact she requested it. 

I love these cute kiddos! In matching jammies and all. :D

Dorathy

Tonight after putting Rachel to bed, I hear her calling frantically, "Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!" I went in to check on her and she held up her stuffed animal she was sleeping with and said, "I'm Dorothy and this is Toto!" Then after I told her goodnight and left she followed me out to tell me "This is Kansas, because I love in Kansas!" After she told me that, she went and laid down and went right to sleep. Funny girl! We are reading The Wizard of Oz together right now and she loves it. I love it when the books we read come out in her play (which is often.) 

The last of the tomatoes!!

I did it! We had tomatoes with just about every meal this week and we finished off 25 pounds of tomatoes with out any going bad! I am cool! Plus we got to eat lots of yummy tomatoes which are the best food ever!   I made salsa twice, tomato pasta,  tomato soup, put tomatoes in beans, in eggs, and on pizza and I ate delicious tomatoes for lunch quite a few times. I think for now I won't rush out and buy another 25 pounds but it was a fun challenge that I will definitely try again! 

Better than TV

Who knew that a new washer would be better than a TV!! 

We've never ah a front load wager before and our kids are fascinated with it, especially Kent! Seriously, it has been going for 30 minutes and Kent is still watching it. 

It was really cute at first because he would watch it start and then stop and he would get a worried look on his face and touch it and it would start again and he would laugh. I seriously think he thought he was making it start and stop. 

My kids are crazy! They were kissing it and hugging it. Who knew they would be so excited for a new washer!

He gets excited over every new sound it makes.

They are freaking hilarious!

The little things

It's really the little things that count, ya know? And my hubby is so good at the little things. He just makes my heart melt! Little things like putting dinner away with out being asked, playing with the kids when I feel crazy so I can get a little sanity back, writing sweet valentines to me and the kids before he has to go to work, taking the garbages out to the curb so I don't have to go out in the cold, turning on the electric blanket and putting it under the covers on my side of the bed so I can climb into a warm bed instead of a cold one. **happy sigh** I just love that man! He makes my heart happy! 

Baby Sitting

Today I watched two kids that belong to a lady in our ward. She just had some kind of surgery that was so severe that she can't even pick up her 4 month old baby. I can't even imagine how hard that would be to not be able to pick up your own baby. Her hubby had to be gone for 4 hours this morning so I got to watch the kids. Her other kiddo was a 2 year old, so I played with a 3 year-old, a 2 year-old, a 1 year-old, and a 4 month-old all morning and I loved it. It was really funny when they Home Depot guys came to deliver our new washer this morning (yay!!). They looked at me in astonishment and said, "You have four kids!?" It was one of the first things they said to me when I opened the door. He expression on his face made me giggle. Those kiddos were so sweet! I almost didn't want to take them back! It felt good to snuggle a little baby in my arms and get to feed him and hold him while he was sleeping, and Rachel and Kent were super cute with him. Rachel kept wanting to hold him and he loved seeing his tiny feet. Kent kept pointing at him and saying "baby!" Then he would have to go get a baby doll and a blanket to wrap it in and he watched me and held his baby the same way I was holding the little boy baby. Kent loves his baby dolls and I love it that he loves them! He hugs them and kisses them and is just too cute with them. He will be a good Daddy one day. And my little Rachel girl wants to be a grown up so bad. She is such a good helper. 

Puppy

Instead of going to sleep tonight, Kent kept pretending he was a puppy. He kept licking my arm and when I would tell him to lay down he would say, "Puppy! Puppy!" It was super cute! Even his little licks on my arm were cute! I love that he is starting to pretend to be other things (how could he not learn that eventually though with Rachel as an older sister). Today he was also crawling around the house saying "Neigh" over and over again. I love my cute toddler/horse/puppy! 

Fast Rain

So yesterday was fast Sunday, and the whole state of California was asked to have a special fast for rain. I guess there has been a pretty bad drought here. I knew that it had rained less then the last time we were here in the winter, but I hadn't thought much of it. Well yesterday morning (the day of our fast) we woke to rain. And it rained all day long. I don't think it was a coincidence. I thought it was a sweet testament to the thousands of us that participated, that our Heavenly Father does hear our prayers. He wants to bless us. He wants to give us the things we want and need, but he also wants us to ask. 

Another thing that happened yesterday. Rachel and I were talking about the priesthood and she said, "Well, I don't have the priesthood yet!" So we talked about how only worthy male members of the church of a certain age held the priesthood, but although she doesn't get to have the priesthood, she can still receive it's blessings at any time. She said, "I want a blessing!" So she proceeded to ask Jacob if he would give her a blessing. Now this has happened a few different times at our house. We have talked about the priesthood and Rachel has expressed a desire for a blessing. Each time we talk to her about it more and then Jacob gives her a blessing. I think it is really sweet because she doesn't have any qualms about asking for blessings. No doubts about that maybe she doesn't have a good enough reason for a blessing or anything like that, and I love it. I think that it how we should be. Our Heavenly Father wants to bless us. He restored the priesthood to the earth so that it could be used, not so we could talk ourselves out of using it. We don't need to wait til we are super sick or til we have huge problems to ask for blessings from our Heavenly Father. He wasn't a to bless us in good times as well as the hard times. Rachel was sweet and said that she wanted a blessing to help her to read better and to do her math better. With The Lord on her side, she can't help but be successful! I love the faith of this sweet girl! I want to be more like her!

I want to grow up!

My Rachel-girl is always telling me that she just wants to grow up and that she wants to be big. Seriously this kid wants to grow up too fast! I asked her, "Rachel why do you want to be big so bad? Why do you want to grow up?" Her response?

"I want to be big so that I can be a mom and so that I can homeschool my kids, and so I can teach my kids how to read and do math. I want to read books to my kids all the time and I want to give them hugs and kisses any time they need them!"

Seriously she is too cute, and trying to grow too fast! 

Fresh Salsa!!!

You see this? This is the taste of summer...in February! (I love living in California!)

I couldn't have 25 pounds of tomatoes in the house with out making fresh salsa at least once!

I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with the rest of the tomatoes but i do know that this fresh salsa alone was worth the 12.50 I paid for them!

I couldn't get Kent to taste any of it except the juice after I made it which was funny because the whole time I was making it he kept asking for a bite. "A bite? A bite?" He probably ate a whole tomatoes worth before I even added it to the bowl. 

Rachel liked it though, and Jacob can't get enough of it. He keeps telling me how cool I am because I made something so yummy. I think he kinda likes me, and I'm glad cause I kinda like him back. <'v'>