Poor, poor Henry!

Our poor little Henry had a hard afternoon! He and 2 of his cousins, Abby and Leah, were playing in the "forest" behind Grandma's Chris's house and they stumbled across a hive of bees (or something like that - maybe they were wasps...we never actually saw them...). They were all stung multiple times and they were all very sad. There was a whole lot of screaming and crying! It must have been pretty terrifying for them to be attacked like that.
Henry ended up having 6 stings on his head and ears and arm and hand. He was so sad all the say home and all evening until he went to bed. And the worst part is that he was JUST stung on Sunday by a wasp on the back of his head and he was pretty sad about just the one sting.
Poor little boy.
Abby and Leah - we hope you're doing alright!

Fourth of July

For the fourth of July, we had a little BBQ here with Chris, Jim, Kaitlin and Ammon, which was fun and very tasty. Then we headed up to BYU to watch the Stadium of Fire Fireworks from a spot on campus (we went to a little grassy field where the DT pool used to be). We met our friend's the Morgan's there and just camped out and the kids played and rode bikes until it got dark.
We got to see the jets fly over, which is always thrilling (one of the best parts of the day), but then they set off just a few little fireworks and Henry decided he was done. He went to the car and stayed there the rest of our wait. When the actual fireworks started Adam went to sit in the car with him to watch them, but he cried the whole time and he just wanted to go home. So after about 5 minutes of fireworks, they had about a 15 minute break (for who knows why) and we just decided to go home...so it was a long wait for 5 minutes of fireworks! But it was still fun and maybe we'll try again next year! Maybe...
Note Henry's new bike "training wheel bike" (that's what he calls it) in the photos - he LOVES it.

Freedom Festival Balloons

We went to see the hot air balloons Friday morning (really early!). Henry is really into "flying" things and so we thought he'd enjoy this, which he did. He and Ella both enjoyed it. It was pretty cool. Here are some pictures:




It was surprising to see how many people showed up at 6am, but it was a fun little trek and we're glad we went.

I love to see the temple

Today turns out to be a special day for me - it marks the 8 year anniversary of my first time going through the temple. And the funny thing is that I didn't notice the date or realize the significance until this morning, when I was in the temple.
I haven't been to the temple for a while - since the first week of February, I believe. So going today was a little special to begin with. I've just been needing to go so badly. And then I was overwhelmed with emotion when I looked down at my slip and saw the date - 7 July. I realized that it was my special day to be at the temple. And I guess that the new names they use in the temple must correspond to the date because they used the same name today that they used 8 years ago, which made it even more special.
I first received my endowment on July 7, 2001. I went to the Los Angeles temple with my mom, dad, Joe, Brooke, and my Aunt Liz and her 2 daughters, Nina and Bonnie. I loved it. I loved the peace that I felt the entire time I was there. I've never felt so peaceful in my entire life. I'm usually a ball of worry and turmoil and so feeling that peace was a witness to me of the sacredness of that special building and the work that goes on inside. After doing the initiatory, they lead me into the endowment room and I'll never forget the site of everyone lined up to go into the session. They were on a tall staircase, all dressed in white. It was beautiful. And then upon entering the celestial room it felt just like heaven to be greeted by so many of my family members (at that time 7 was a lot of family members for me...). And then afterward we went to eat dinner at Cheesecake Factory in Marina Del Rey, which for me was a perfect way to end the day - as good food is always a great way to end any day. It was a perfect day.
And the temple has been such a blessing in my life since. Today as I sat in the temple, my soul truly hungered to be there and I was so blessed to be nourished and filled during those short 2 1/2 hours. Sometimes I see people crying and my heart goes out to them because you just know they are trying to work through a hard problem. Today people were probably looking at me, thinking the same thing. But hopefully no one thought that because today my tears were tears of joy and gratitude just to be there. I just feel so very blessed to be able to go there. What a sacred privilege.
And then to top it all off, when I was in the dressing room, getting ready to change back to my street clothes, a complete stranger walked passed me, looked at me and said "you look so beautiful". It was so nice of her to say that since as most of you women know, when you're pregnant, the last thing you feel is beautiful!
I'm grateful I could go to the temple today. My life is much better because of it.

Less than 100 days!

Yahoo - we finally made it to less than 100 days to go until this baby is born. And the only reason I know that is because of that little thingy at the side of our blog (I usually don't count things so far away in that fashion). Goodness gracious does pregnancy ever end?
I have to vent for just a moment(sorry Adam). It's really hard to not feel good. Ever. I keep waiting to feel just a little better, but it just doesn't seem to happen. That's why I CAN'T WAIT to get this baby out of me so I don't have to feel ill every single blasted day. Blah! Sometimes I really do feel like I'll go mad! I feel so badly for people who feel sick with a problem that they'll have for the rest of their lives. I can't even imagine. Those people have my heart and prayers.
Okay - I did my public complaining and I'll try to keep it to myself for a while!

Happy Birthday, Ella!

Ella Bella is 2 years old today! We haven't done too much to celebrate because I'm getting over the stomach flu. But she was able to open a present this morning, play with some balloons this afternoon, and then open a few more presents tonight. That was pretty much the extent of her festivities. We will have a bbq and some cupcakes with family in a few days or so.
Here are some pictures of today:





Ella is so much fun and we are very grateful that she is a part of our family. We have been blessed these past 2 years with her presence. We love you, Ella - Happy Birthday!

It's a....

GIRL! We are very surprised and very excited. We've been referring to her as a "him" the whole time...everyone seemed to know it was a girl but us!
Here are 2 pictures of her. For a skeleton picture, I think the open mouth one is pretty cute.
Hooray for our sweet little girl!

Spiders!

Henry is really into bugs these days and so Thursday we got a few books from the library on bugs/grasshoppers/spiders/rollie pollies. He is LOVING them. But let me tell you something. In some ways, it's really fascinating to learn about all of these different kinds of bugs. On the other hand, I'm learning way more than I need to know about them! Particularly spiders. This is the book we have on spiders:

It's actually a great book if your child wants to learn about spiders, but I'm learning that spiders are much more than I thought they were and it's just so gross!
First of all, the whole 8 eyes thing weirds me out. And did you know that they don't actually "eat" their pray? They inject a chemical into their bodies (after their venom has paralyzed them) that turns their insides into soup and then they just suck out their insides? How gross is that! And there is a HUGE tarantula in South America called a bird eater tarantula that is about the size of a frisbee...BLAH! I would feel much better not knowing things like that! But I thought you might want to know that, too... :)
Anyways - this is a great book if your children are interested, but beware! You may learn way more than you want to!

Oh, how we love PIZZA!

Adam's mom has passed on a tradition of making homemade pizza to many of her children and our family LOVES it! We make it often and it's just so tasty.
We made it last week and the kids helped. I especially like to make an all veggie one. Yummy!

Beach Day!

Today we are having great weather and so we took the kids to the beach for a couple of hours. The beach was GORGEOUS! It was so warm (probably about 80 degrees) and it wasn't too windy while we were there.
The tide was out and so we were able to let the kids play in the lagoon area over to the side. When the tide is in, the water can be really deep with swift currents in that area. I don't think I can remember the tide being that far out, too - it was kind of different. It was good for us, though!
The kids had a blast. They played in the water and found sea shells and rocks and built sand castles. It was a fun time. I wish we could go all the time!
The weather is supposed to continue to warm up and so we told Henry we'd try to go back one more time before our trip back to Utah (which will be Wednesday and Thursday of next week).
Hooray for the beach!

Henry's Wish

This is so cute, I just have to share it. And I wish I could have caught it on video because to watch him do it is precious.
He loves to make wishes and throw pennies into fountains. But every time he does it he just does the same wish over and over. He holds the penny up to his mouth and says -

"I wish, I wish, I miss my daddy, and I want to get on the airplane to go visit him."

Early Ultrasound

So the doctor's office that I've been going to while here in San Luis has all of the mommies do an early ultrasound (anytime between 10 and 13 weeks...or something like that). I just got back from having mine and everything looks great. It was fun to see the little whipper snapper and to know that everything is going well. And sometimes they can tell the sex at this point, but the doctor who was helping us didn't even try. Oh well - we'll find out soon enough, right?

Hi from California

I just thought I'd post this information for those of you who haven't heard yet.
The kids and I are in California for a while. I'm 2 months pregnant and I'm too sick to take care of the kids, let alone myself. Unfortunately my allergy therapy did absolutely nothing and here I am, pregnant again and just wanting to be put out of my misery. This time is definitely the hardest.
We miss Adam, but I think that everyone is better off where we are. We have been so blessed to be able to have the help and I pray everyday for my parents to have the strength to take care of my kids - because these kids sure do have a lot of energy. :)
If you're somewhere near Adam, stop by and say hi or give him a call - I want him to have all of the support he can get! Thanks -

Stouffers Mac n Cheese

So somebody gave us a frozen stouffers mac n cheese last week and we made it one night. Has anyone ever had this meal? It tasted okay, I guess, but the odd part about that meal is the way that Adam and I felt after eating it. We both felt so gross and sick and we couldn't eat very much of it. WHAT IN THE WORLD IS IN THAT THING?? That's all I want to know.
Anyone else had a similar experience with frozen stouffers food?
Blah! No more for us!

Potty Training

Henry has been working on potty training this last week. He's doing really well, although he is still resisting just a little. Sometimes he just doesn't feel like it, I guess. He does best when he is naked, so we've had a lot of "naked time" for Henry this week.
One day we were giving high fives for going in the toilet and he said (while naked) "high five, hoo-hoo" and he gave five to his hoo-hoo (that's what we mostly call it to him...I know, I know, probably not the best idea...). Isn't that so funny? We're still laughing about it!

Albertson's Sale

Did anyone go to the Albertson's sale this week? My good friend Brooke Stevenson helped me plan and go to the big sale today and I bought $205 worth of groceries and I spent $70!! It was all about working the sale and adding in coupons. I still don't understand half of it, but I do know that it was amazing!
If anyone wants more info on it, you can visit Brooke's blog (hope that's okay, Brooke) and she gives a more detailed explanation on how it works.
And the sale goes until Tuesday and so if you haven't gone yet, you should give it a try!

Wild Web Wednesday!

We just bought a portable DVD player at RC Willey for only $20.99! Can you believe it? We've wanted one for so long and now we finally got one - and for such a great price. It may break in a year, but oh well - it was only 20 bucks!
We had to call into the web and then we will pick it up at the store because shipping on anything you buy on the web at RC Willey is $59.99. Yikes! But since we had the option of picking it up, that is the way we're doing it.
Hooray for Wild Web Wednesday!

9 degrees? Brrrrrr!

I'm dressing for church and I wanted to know what to expect today. Weather.com says 9 degrees????? i don't even know how to dress for that. Seriously! And I guess the high is supposed to be 15. Come on 15! Anything is better than 9.
I guess that makes sense, though. I've been freezing all morning and I've been wrapped in a blanket by my kitchen window, soaking up the sunshine for the last hour or so.
Brrrr!!!

Happy 2009!

Happy New Year, everyone!
Last night Adam's brother, Lance, came over with his wife, Nancy, and we played 2 games - Scattergories and Settler's of Catan - and we ate a lot of food and drank a lot of Martinelli's. It was a lot of fun. I'm really glad that they came over to celebrate with us. The only unfortunate thing is that we forgot to take pictures!
But I've gotta say, staying up late isn't the same as it once was in my younger years! It makes me feel physically ill and this morning - same thing! The sick feeling never went away while I slept! I didn't think I was THAT old, but I guess I'm pushing it. :)
I hope everyone had a fun celebration and that you're all off to a good start so far this year!

Quick Christmas Re-cap

I'm so done with Christmas, but I wanted to at least post something about it before January.
We stayed here in Utah this year and had a very nice Christmas.
We had a nice Christmas Eve here at our house with just us. We at some soup (Brundage family tradition - well, it used to be!), made some cookies for Santa, read Luke 2 and attempted to have the kids act it out, but Henry REFUSED to play Joseph and he kept saying "I'm not Joseph, I'm Henry," and then everyone got to bed nice and early.
Christmas morning we had a fun time opening presents and playing with toys and games. Then in the afternoon we went down to Elk Ridge to spend time with Adam's family. We talked and ate yummy homeade pizza (Clark family tradition).
It was a very nice day and we were so very blessed.
So that's that - now let's get on to January!