Thanksgiving

I have no pictures to post which always makes me feel like I am not allowed to blog, but it has been a while since I updated, so I thought I should anyway.

We had a great Thanksgiving. Went up to spend it with Josh's parents about 2 hours North of here. It was a really nice weekend with a good combo of relaxing and doing fun things. Dinner was great-especially the cranberry jello stuff I made and the pumpkin cheesecake Josh's mom made. That night we had a Polar Express party which the boys of course loved. We all danced around the house like a train to the Polar Express music and then watched the movie. The boys also got train pjs and trains from grandma and had hot chocolate.

Friday morning me and my insane spouse decided to get up at 3:20 to go shopping. We hit JC Penneys when it opened at 4 hoping to get a Christmas tree but it turned out we didn't even really like the tree when we saw it. We were at Toys R Us by about 4:30 and stood in line there and got in at 5. Got what we wanted and then went out to breakfast. After that we hit a few more stores that were all insane and then came back home. I slept for 2.5 hours after that. Through the course of the weekend we did end up with a Christmas tree and had the shopping for the boys totally done! It was fun even if we were tired.

Saturday we went to paint pottery at a paint it yourself place. We let each of the boys do a project. They loved it. Then we went out to lunch and then went and got our Christmas tree. That was a fun morning.

Now here we are back to normal life. I started potty training Jack this week and I am tired of it already. But I have to stick with it! I don't know if he is really ready-I think he is and I figured I would do it now so that it had time to stick before the baby. I guess we will see what happens.

Baby is growing and making me tired. I always forget how much energy being pregnant can drain from a person. I am getting so excited to meet my third little man. We have a name picked out that we are excited about, just need a middle name now. We have hardly bought anything-don't have too much to get since he is boy #3 but we do have to get him some winter clothes. We need to finish sanding and staining his dresser first so that we have somewhere to put all the stuff though.

Well, that sums up at least some of the last week or so of life. I have to remember to take more pictures!

Jack Sings

I have been trying for a while to get a video on my blog, so here goes another whirl. I have been attempting to catch the boys on video singing mostly for my own benefit because I don't want to forget how cute they sound when they are singing as they grow older. So, here is Jack singing if this works:

Big Halloween Update

It has been a little too long since I wrote and now I have lots to update and lots of pictures! We had a really good Halloween this year. The best part was that my family-mom, dad and brother Scott-decided sort of last minute to drive out from Colorado and visit us. They got here last Monday night (Oct. 29) which was perfect timing for all of our Halloween festivities and made them even more fun.

When they got here we had Family Home Evening complete with pumpkin carving which the boys really loved this year and pumpkin seeds which I burned. Our pumpkins turned out really cute though and the boys had a really fun time! They loved having help from Grandpa and Uncle Scott. And they loved the pumpkin "guts."

Then on Tuesday night we had the trunk or treat at our church which was really fun as always. We have a million little kids at church so it was crowded and fun. The boys loved "trunk or treating" and enjoyed wearing and showing off their costumes. Nathan took Grandma Allen and Grandpa Allen each on a parade around the gym to meet all of his friends. He absolutely insisted that they each had to meet his friends and had a great time showing everyone his grandma and grandpa.

Wednesday night was trick or treating in the neighborhood. I don't think we have had such a warm Halloween in years and years, so it made for good trick or treating. It was still cold, but not bitter cold like it usually is. Jack would not wear his Jack-O-Lantern costume (which I made and spent several hours on) so he wore Nathan's old Elmo costume instead-little stinker! He looked really cute though and the Elmo costume is warm and fuzzy so he didn't have to wear a coat. Our friends, the Dickmans, came over to trick or treat with us and Nathan and Trey and Jack all had a really good time running from door to door. The boys got a ton of candy which I am eagerly helping them eat. Ugh!

Other than that we had a good week with my family-played outside at parks, took them on the bus to Babcock Hall for ice cream, miniature golfed, went out to eat, etc. The boys were in heaven having so many people to play with them.

I also have to include a picture of our Family Home Evening activity from two weeks ago-we made gourd people! We had so much fun! I think they turned out really cute too so I had to take a pic and post it. Nathan's is on the left, then Josh's, then mine, then Jack's. I just love doing fun things like this because the boys get such a kick out of it.

So, all is well here. Today was pretty cold for the first time in a while and I think the cold is probably here to stay. I am not complaining though, I can't believe we got such a nice October-the weather has been great for Wisconsin. Baby boy is getting big-I am now in my third trimester and feeling tired but good. Things are going really well for Josh at work right now and things are looking really good for my business as we start into Christmas shopping season which is great. So, all is well!

Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday was a perfect fall day in the midwest. It doesnt' get any better than that-70 degrees, clear blue sky and the leaves are at their peak of changing. It was perfect. We took the chance to go to a pumpkin patch-one of our absolute favorite things to do as a family. Grandma and Grandpa Price came down to visit for the day and go along with us.

The pumpkin patch we went to had a corn maze, tractor/ hayride to a pumpkin picking area, a huge slide to go down, a barn to play in, karmel korn to buy and all sorts of great stuff. We had a good time. The boys each picked out a pumpkin. Poor Jack-we kept trying to help him pick a good carving one but all he wanted was to find a cute little one that he could easily carry himself, so in the end he chose a small one and Josh and Nathan picked two big ones to carry. Nathan led us through the corn maze and got us out pretty quickly-he was a good leader.

After the pumpkin patch we came home and made homemade doughnuts-yum! We also had a "harvest feast" to go to last night and at a friend's house.

Friday night we had a dip party inspired by several people mentioning that they had dip parties recently. It was fun-4 couples and some kids came over and each brought a dip and something to dip in it. We had a lot of fun and a lot of good food!!

I also have to include a picture of Jack when we went to the same pumpkin patch for playgroup about a week and a half ago-it was SO cold that day so he is all bundled up and I just think he looks so cute!

Sad, sad news and sunny southern Cal.

Well, it was a sad, sad day in the Price family. Today we tried to go to our pumpkin patch that we have gone to every year since coming to Madison. Each year we take pictures in the same spot so that we have comparison pics from year to year. It has been such a fun tradition. We drove there this morning and there is no pumpkin patch this year! (It is just on a really small family farm.) We were so sad! So no pictures at our pumpkin patch from us this year. :(



But, we did go take family pictures at a park that turned out good-I am not going to post them here though because they are for our Christmas card. Then we went to the Fire Station Open House in the next city over. That was so neat! The boys got to "drive" fire trucks, spray a fire house, and see a helicopter land. They also were giving out free hotdogs, pop, popcorn, fireman hats, balloons, etc. So they boys were happy even though we didn't get to our pumpkin patch. Nathan and daddy also went on a "daddy date" today-they went bowling and to McDonald's to get ice cream. Josh even got in the play area and played he said!



I have to post the picture Nathan drew of our family today. Apparently he is impressed by my belly growth with this pregnancy. He said to me "you're the fat one." Nice! I loved it really-cracked me up! I don't think I am really THAT huge. Here is a pic of me today that Nathan actually took with the camera too! Definitely a growing belly! We are excited too because we have a name for him-but it's a secret! :)

The last big information for now is that we found out about a week ago that we are officially going to be in San Diego for the next two years-after Josh graduates this summer. He will finish up sometime in June/July probably and then we will head to San Diego for him to do a 2 year post doc at Scripps Research Institute. We are excited for the nice weather but will be SO sad to leave Madison.

We did lots of other fun things lately but I will post more about them later. I need to put some pics of Jack on here too! I will do that this week!

It's Alive!

I've been told it is time for us to start blogging again because people want to read about our exciting and fun filled life! Well, at least one person does and that's my mom-can't say that anyone else wants to but here it is for whoever wants to read.

This week has been PACKED with fun and such. I will only tell a little of the fun so you don't all feel jealous that you weren't here with us.

Monday was an exciting day-we had an ultrasound and found out that our little baby is another boy. (We are fairly certain that we may never hear an ultrasound tech say the words "looks like it is a girl.") We are excited for our new little baby boy. Shortly after the ultrasound though we got a little bit of bad news-the baby's cord only has two vessels (they normally have three). This can be associated with all kinds of birth defects which isn't good news, but they said that everything else on the ultrasound had measured well which was reassuring. We scheduled a Level 2 ultrasound with a perinatologist at the hospital to get a closer look at the major organs to make sure that everything looks good. We had that on Thursday and they found no problems with any of the body parts (heart, kidneys, stomach) that they could see, so at this point it looks like all is well. We will have one more ultrasound in December to make sure he seems to be growing at a healthy rate.

Nathan started preschool this week and he loved it! He was a little nervous his first day but loved it by his second. The theme this week was sports and they did all sorts of fun activities like singing "Take me out to the ball game," playing sports outside, coloring pictures of various sports equipment, measuring balls and putting them in order from heaviest to lightest, and Nathan's favorite part, they sang a silly song called "Willaby Wallaby Wathan, an elephant sat on Nathan." This coming week I get to teach and both me and Nathan can't wait! This is his preschool helper chart picture.

Fall is sort of starting to arrive in Wisconsin so we have spent some time outside enjoying it. The leaves are starting to change and it has been a little bit cooler than summer weather. We went to a couple of parks and had fun seeing our friends who we hadn't seen for a while because we were on vacation. The best part was that we went apple picking! The boys had fun riding in the wagon at the Eplegaarden and picking apples off the tree and I had fun making apple crisp.

Friday and Saturday I went on a trip with 9 friends to Minneapolis-we went to the temple there, the mall of America and then a conference for women on Saturday. It was fun and checked one more thing off my list of things I want to do while we are still in Madison. While I was gone Nathan planned a "Gentleman's party" for Dad, Nathan and Jack. (This was his name for the party-not mine. I told him he better keep it clean.) They had pizza, rootbeer and popcorn and watched a movie.

OK, that will be all for now but there will be more about our fun and exciting life to come!

A Message from Nathan

Here is what Nathan has to see for our blog today. Definitely makes a lot of sense:

Many years ago we goed to a pumpkin patch, like many years ago it came to the inches. I was little in that young age into the Bible of the Lawrence. When I was little I got a picture of me. But daddy Josh and Nathan and Amber and Jack. Goodbye, see you!