baby # 3

I can't believe that we are going to be having another little one in our family.

will it be a girl? or will it be a boy? who knows :)

at our regular 20 week ultrasound appointment we DID NOT find out what we are having, no one knows, the ultrasound tech, my midwife, nobody :)

although we do not know, I really think I know what we are going to have, we shall see just a few months away.

what a fun surprise this is going to be, I can't wait :)

progress

3 weeks and counting until we make our move to St. George.

wow we have a lot of junk, it is shocking how much stuff you accumulate throughout the years.

the DI has already received 2 huge loads from me and I have at least 2 more enormous ones :)

yesterday, I sold my bedroom furniture, a tool box of Jonah's, and an exercise bike=
$590.00 woohoo

3 items I do not have to move to St. George- double woohoo!!!!

Changes

Well Jonah and I have decided that we all need a little change in our lives.......
so we have decided to move to St. George

Jonah and I have been trying to get down there for quite a while now, he has put in for a a few job openings the last 2 years and finally he got it.

We are really excited for this change, but also a little scared.

We are going down there this coming weekend to find a house, hopefully we find something quickly :)

so much to do.....
find a house
change schools for Mara
pack up this house
get new house ready for moving in
move down there
carpet and paint this house
get this house on the market

oh..... and did I mention that I am pregnant and I can't do a lot of this work?

everything is going to turn out fine, I just need to remember to breathe :)

# 3

On July 23rd, Jonah and I found out that we are now expecting our 3rd little one!!!

we are all very excited :)

I am due March 25th, 2011

we are hoping that this will be a very exciting and SUPRISING pregnancy, as we are determined to not find out the gender until D-day.

wish us luck :)

here is a picture of this little one a few weeks ago.....

catch up.......

So....

since i totally stink at blogging, this whole year! I will do a catch up:)

June

14th- Mara started soccer, she loved it :) so did Jackson

24th- 27th our annual Wasatch Camping trip with the Butterfield/Champion Group

July

2nd- Mara finally figured out how to swim!!!!!!! yeah, yippee, hurray!!!

14th- Jonah and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary

18th- we lost our sweet girl Ria, she died while we were all on a trip down in Southern Utah- we miss her dearly.

23rd- we adopted a new little girl, Shelby. she is a german shepherd and is ALL puppy!

(right after we got her)

August

6th- Mara cut her hair off - well we had a professional cut it all of. Mara was adament that she wanted to donate her hair for a sick little kid. she is such a sweet heart :)(this is right after we left getting her hair cut)

15th-we went to Lagoon, we all had a great time

18th- Mara started 1st grade

20th-My sweet Mara turned 6, wow where has the time gone?

Mara has become such an amazing young lady. She is so willing to help out whenever it is needed ( give or take a few times when she doesn't want to pay attention)

She loves her brother and he loves her, they are great friends now and hopefully it will stay that way for a very long time.

I am so very glad that I am able to be her mom, I feel very honored and blessed :)

20th-also, the newest member of the extented Stroud family was born.

Brooke Reeves Stroud

born at 4 am

3 lbs. 2 oz.

although she was only 33 weeks gestation she did fantastic, she never needed oxygen, she just was super small. She stayed in the NICU for a little over 2 in a half weeks then was able to come. she is currently at 5 lbs. 2 oz. wow!!

September

10th- Jackson and I drove to Boise ID to go visit a friend. I t was so nice to get to visit and see her and her cute family.

this is her daughter Lucy, she and Jackson had a great time together

11th- Mara and Jonah went to Texas to attend a Texas Longhorns football game, Mara had a great time but by hour #4 she was ready to go back to the hotel

24th- we went camping out to 5 mile, it was a nice trip :) although there were WAY to many flies out there :(

hundreds of flies- I am not kidding!!!

well that about briefly sums up our summer, hopefully i will keep up on posts better :)

Mara's new room

We moved Mara downstairs a few months ago- okay it was during last school year.

We decided that she was in need of her own space, along with her brother :)

She decided that she wanted her room to be totally different than her old little girl room, so she picked RED!

I painted the room and got new bedding and she was officially moved to her own big girl room

-to bad it took me a quite few months to actually finish her room- I know I am a slacker :)

well here is her room, for now.........

her red- flower room

I painted flowers and the birds on her walls to match the images from her bedding

Mara likes all of the flowers and birds she says that they make her happy :)

***Audy- I have included this picture to show you the bear hooks from me and Annie's old room :)***

Princess Festival 2010

Mara was sooo excited for this years Princess Festival.

she had been talking about going since we lefts the festival last year.

This year we had Jonah and Jackson with us, I think the boys thought it was pretty dumb.

Mara loved it and that is all that matters.

here are some pictures from the day.........

down on the farm

the beginning of June Annie and the girls came to Utah on their way to California ( new home state)

well while they were here, We decided that wse should go to Wheeler Farm. Shanny, Dawson, Logan-his friend, Oliver, Annie, Melia, and Sophie and me and my two little kiddos headed to teh farm for a nice relaxing day. I love spending time with my sisters, I wish I could spend time with ALL of my sisters all of the time.

Dawson running after some poor ducks

all of the kiddos after we all had a nice cold treat at the little General Store

( expect Oliver, :( )

Sophie

Mara and Melia

Jackson's new room

I decided that I wanted to redo Jackson's Bedroom, change out the bedding, change the colors, the entire motif.......

well I figured that I loved the fabric(s) from Jackson's birthday party so I reused all of the flags I made for the party and hung them in his room.

It changed the paint color ( it was yellow, now it is a marigold orange

I changed the changing pad

I made pillowsI recovered this little chair, Mara got the original chair from my mom for her 2nd birthday, it was a kitty cat- it was the last present my mom gave Mara.I changed the toy boxes with new fabric a new hamperAltered bedding ( I bought the duvet cover from Ikea, then modified it) I painted cute animals on the walls ( they are from the fabric, so I just copied the image) I really love it!!!

and the new and improved room looks like this...........

this is what the room looked like before ( well, it was what it looked like when I changed it before Jackson was born) it was the only pictures I had of the complete room.

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day, I got Golf Clubs- I wasn't to sure of them at first but I LOVE them now!!!!

the whole family has gone out a bunch of times now.

I love that we can all go and do something together.

Jonah of course has clubs- and the coolest golf bag ever ( I gave him the bag last year for Father's day)
I have clubs now,
Mara has clubs,
and Jackson even has clubs of his own- they were $5 and are plastic- he doesn't care

Jackson LOVES golf -see previous post here

thanks Hunny for the great Mother's day gift!!!! this was on Mother's Day weekend, Mara and Jackson drove the cart
Mara loves to pick flowers while golfing.

I accidentally ran over mara's finger, she was still hitting her ball so Jackson and I drove up closer to the hole, well mara decided that she wanted to run up and catch us, she grabbed on to teh cart and then tripped, and her hand just happened to have been there to get ran over- I felt horrible :(
After golfing we were able to go up to the cemetary to visit my mom, and to bring flowers. I hate that the I can't see and visit my mom for real, it is NOT fair. I miss her terribly.

Happy Belated Mother's Day Momma!! I Love you

Mara's big teeth :0(

May 19th
My baby lost her first tooth, as you can see her big adult tooth was already coming in. (its sister was right next to it too.)

I have been so worried about her big teeth coming in, because baby teeth are so cute and adult teeth are so BIG and Awkward, but she looks cute :)
Mara was fine until she saw that there was a small amount of blood from where the tooth was, then she cried and told me that it hurt soooooo bad.

then I took her to school and all was forgiven, she told each and every person in her class about her missing tooth. Parents included (we were going on a field trip that day so parents were there)

UPDATE

Mara has now lost her second tooth, on June 18th- Jonah pulled it.

sorry I forgot to add the picture:(

Park Lane Elementary's 30 year celebration

On April 26th, I was able to attend the Park Lane Elementary 30 year year celebration with Audrey and my kiddos. I thought that Mara would think it was cool to see where I went to school when I was her age- she did!!

All of the Elkington girls attended Park Lane, it is by far the GREATEST school Ever!!!

When Heather was about to go to Kindergarten the school was not completed yet, so the kindergarten students were bussed to Midvale Elementary, and the rest of the school students were sent to Granite Elementary.

here is the history.....

To my surprise, Mr. Thacker, the first principle of Park Lane was there, he is still so cute ;-)

Mr. Thacker was not only our principle but also he served in the Utah National Guard with My Grandpa Elwin- we all thought that was so cool.

not the best picture, I know but my phone was the only camera I had

Here is the school song, which I believe Shannon's grade ( I think it was 2nd grade but I can't remember) came up with it. *****I still remember it!*****

The school was remodeled the summer before 6th grade- funny story I will have to share it sometime, Annie I hope you remember what it is :-)

It seemed so weird to be in that school, it all looked so different and yet so very much the same. It felt like I had only been out of that school for a few years not 18 or 19 years ago.

this was the only brown/orange wall carpet that is still up in the school, befor ethe remodel it was on all of the walls throughout the school, and I think yellow too

out in front of the school, next to the drinking fountains- those darn fountains were NEVER on during recess, and there was always nasty garbage and dirt in them :-(

well if anyone else that attended Park Lane has some good memories of this place, I want to hear your story :) and also if you remembered the school song (and if you sang it out loud as you looked at this post )

California ( part 2)

DISNEYLAND.......

Day 1

We walked over to the park, the look on Mara's face was priceless! She was in total HEAVEN, I have never seen her so excited and happy, we were just at the entrance.

we were able to pretty much go on every ride at least once but some of them we were able to ride multiple times. Around 2:30 it started to rain, it was a warm rain- we were fine, other people not so much. The locals left the park and everyone else ran into the shops and hid out until the rain stopped. we didn't mind at all.

During the rainstorm we decided that this would be the perfect time to go get in line for the Princess Faire, we waited about 45 minutes- not bad compared to the horror stories I had been told about the line and the wait.

we stayed until 7 then went to have dinner and then back to the hotel for some swimming and relaxing in the hot tub. it was a great first day!!!!

until tomorrow................

Day 2

We decided that since we had been able to ride almost every ride the day before that we would go ride a few rides at Disneyland then go over to California Adventure today, hoping for the same luck as the day before.

We started out in Disneyland then to California Adventure, we went on a handful of rides, but it wasn't the same as the day before. It was COLD!!!!!

the sun was out but the wind made the day soooooooo cold!

one of the ride that both Mara and I LOVED was the Tower of Terror, Mara was a little scared at first but once the first drop, she was in love:) a girl after my own heart.

As soon as we got off the ride ara ran over to Jonah and wanted to go again.

unfortunately, Jonah did not feel the same about this, he hated the feeling of free falling ( he says it gives him flashbacks of falling/crashing his dirtbike, you are falling and there is nothing you can do about it)

We wanted to go on the BIG roller Coaster, but Mara was 1/2 inch to short and they would not budge :(

we had a short day at the California Adventure - not enough rides to do and TOO many vendors, so we left the park(s) for an early dinner, we changed into warer clothing and headed back for the fireworks, which they ended up not doing them.

that is okay, we enjoyed our night of swimming again back at the hotel.

tomorrow here we come........

Day 3

We decided that since today was our last day at Disneyland that we would try to see different Princess' at the princess Faire.

So while Jonah and Mara went on "it's a Small World" again- Mara and Jackson LOVED it!!!

Jackson and I stood in line- 1 hour and 15 minutes later we were next in line, we then heard that the princess's had just switched, from Mulan, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White to Princess Tiana, Ariel, and Belle- are you kidding me? the same dang princess's again- ahhhhhh

oh well Mara still liked it, and that is all that mattered.

Mara was also really excited because she got to wear her "princess" dress, My little Snow White!

we went on our favorite rides again and again and again

we finally were able to see the fireworks! they were amazing.

that was a really fun trip! but we ( Jonah and I ) are all Disney'd out :)

tomorrow- drive home:(

Day 4

got up, got in the car at 10:15 a.m. and drove pretty much straight through, got home at 10:00 p.m.

we have decided that now that we have driven to disneyland we can fly next time- no more LONG distance family vacations in the car.

***** I might mention, Jonah did most all of the driving- I drove for an hour and a half -that is all, thank Hunny*****