The baby can now come...

Sadly, I am sick at home today while Drew and the kids are at church. 3 days before a c-section is NOT the best time to get a cough and cold...

My burst of energy is now over, but I am proud to say that all of the "important" home improvement projects are done! Here are some of the results:

Scott and Charlotte's new room:



Valance in the kitchen:


New light in the front room:


Drapes in the living room:


Scott and Charlotte's closet:


The baby room:


Did you actually think I would show you?

Just call me "Tweety"

During the last few weeks of all my pregnancies, I have experienced a serious case of "Nesting Instinct". I knew it was coming on a couple of weeks ago when I opened the refrigerator and was totally disgusted with how dirty it was. It hadn't bothered me for the rest of my pregnancy, but all of the sudden on that particular day, everything had to be dropped so that I could spend the entire afternoon cleaning the fridge and freezer. It was so clean when I was done it could have even passed the old Riviera cleaning inspections. So now, here is the list of things I hope to accomplish before this baby comes in 10 days!

- Move furniture around to get Charlotte settled in Scott's room (done)
- Install a lower closet rung in Scot and Charlotte's closet so they can reach their own clothes (done)
- Paint Scott & Charlotte's new shared room (tomorrow's project)
- Sell anything on eBay or Craigslist that we no longer need (ongoing)
- Hang valances that my mom made forever ago above the kitchen windows (Wednesday?)
- Hang curtains that my mom also made (aren't I lucky?) in the living room
- Find a solution to the annoying bird that hangs out and poops outside of the baby room window (Wednesday I have someone coming to clean and hopefully put something up to keep the bird away)

Those are just a few of the things I hope to finish! I won't even mention how badly I would like to attack the garage and throw away 90% of the junk that exists in there...

Dear Amazon Guy...

Scott LOVES getting on Amazon.com and looking for his favorite toys/movies. Some of you may remember the infamous one-click purchasing episode where Scott found a couple of Baby Einstein movies he thought looked cool and ordered them for himself... Well, since one-click purchasing is turned off, now he just adds things to my cart. I think there were about 25 items (all related to the movie Cars) last time I checked.

This past year was the first Christmas where Scott really understood the whole Santa thing and how we write letters to him. So he thought for his birthday it made sense to write letters to the "Amazon Guy" to give him a wish list. Makes sense to a 4-year-old, right? We had to have a few conversations about how you just can't ask the Amazon Guy for whatever you want and expect it to appear in a box on the doorstep in a couple of days... Wow. How different is this generation from ours??? Here are a couple of his letters:
By the way, Scott is very into changing his name to whatever sounds interesting for the day. Apparently "Race-o-rama", one of the Cars characters, was the name of choice for the day he was writing his notes.

Scott is 5 years old!

My little boy is now 5! We have been counting down the days to February 26th for an awfully long time... Actually, over 3 months ago Scott wrote a birthday invitation and gave it to Zach without me knowing about it. But thanks to Annette's RSVP back in November, I learned that Scott's party was to be at Strikes bowling alley and would go from 4:50 to 5:25pm. Good to know...


We may be cruel parents, but we are going with the plan of alternating friend parties and family parties every year. So this year was a family party, but we let him include 2 friends, Tanner and Zach. We had some minor drama when we discovered Strikes was booked for bowling leagues on the 26th, so we would have to celebrate on the 25th. Took a while, but he got over that and the party was everything I think he hoped for! He did win the bowling game with a score of 90, which I thought was not too shabby:



Then we headed back to our house for presents and the long-awaited Lightning McQueen cake from Baskin Robbins. And of course he was wearing the infamous Lightning McQueen sticker t-shirt, along with a new hat and watch. Funny thing... Jeff (my brother) at the same age was just as obsessed with the Dukes of Hazzard. I am glad that this generation of boys has a new car to revere.



So even though we had the main event on the 25th, I still think Scott was happy! I just can't believe my little guy is now 5. But I have already used his new age quite frequently with him now, like when I say, "You are now 5 years old. 5-year-olds don't whine like that."

I have been waiting for this day...

Back in high school, I was the french braid queen. I could do my own hair, and would do fancy braids for my mom and friends, especially while sitting around at volleyball or basketball tournaments waiting for our turn to play.

Charlotte's hair is finally long enough, and every once in a while (with sufficient bribes) she will hold still long enough to do "pretty princess hair". Here is one of the first few attempts. The best part was she was so proud of her pretty princess hair...



So on a good day, that is what she looks like. On a normal day, she wants to dress and accessorize herself... The only thing missing from this picture is usually the outfit includes her Princess purse and a bathing suit rather than the princess jammies. Stunning.

The GOOD things about being pregnant!

In an effort to have a positive attitude during my last month of pregnancy, I thought I should document the things I enjoy about being pregnant:

1) My hair looks GREAT! It is super thick and feels SO healthy. I can't remember the last time I ran my fingers through my hair and one came out...

2) I have an instant conversation starter with nice people I don't know who are just curious how far along I am, how many kids I have, etc.

3) I eat all the time, whatever I want, and don't feel one bit guilty about it.

4) My skin also feels fabulous and no cruel adult acne...

5) My Gap maternity jeans. Love 'em.

6) I have very crazy, often entertaining dreams that I can usually remember when I wake up.

7) I do not feel guilty when I am so tired in the afternoon that I just lay on the couch while Scott plays the Wii.

8) The hair on my legs completely stops growing.

9) How could I forget... I am going to be able to stay in the hospital for 4 days! I LOVE the hospital!

10) Friends and family are genuinely excited and interested in this wonderful event in our family.

Now just pray for me that I can go to bed and get a decent night sleep :)

Fun in the Snow!

3 days ago, the only knowledge Scott and Charlotte had of snow came from Max and Ruby's Christmas DVD. For those of you who are wondering, Max and Ruby are a cartoon brother/sister bunny team. Max and Ruby build a snowman, go sledding and make snow bunny angels. So sort of like Disneyland, Scott and Charlotte were excited to go to the snow, but really had no idea what was in store...

We spent 2 full days at South Shore Tahoe, right on the border of California and Nevada. The drive there was pretty fun as Scott and Charlotte were both THRILLED to see snow along the way. Our first day, we found a cool snow race track for intertubes. As usual, Scott was thrilled to do it with Daddy, and Charlotte would get up to the top of the track, then wimp out. Then we found another place where we could just make snow angels and play.

The second day we went to a place called Adventure Mountain, up on Echo Summit. The snow around the hotel was pretty sparse and very crunchy, so up at the higher elevation we found LOTS of great places to play! Scott just loved sledding. He couldn't understand how I could possibly get a video of him sledding because he was going SO FAST! And Charlotte thought building a snowman was the greatest thing in the world. She probably spent a good 90 minutes just 'decorating' the snowman we built by putting what she called "tiny snowballs" on and packing it on. She was very proud of her creation and loved to give her snowman hugs. Pretty cute!

Practicing sledding before the big trip; Charlotte was so excited to be wearing her purple jacket and boots from Molly:









We wished they slept this soundly through the nights... We were not so fortunate:


Video of Scott and Drew on the intertube, Charlotte sledding on her MONSTER hill, Scott sledding SO FAST and Charlotte decorating her snowman:

Scott's Christmas Notes

Here is a sampling of what happens when you put together Scott's love for typing notes and his new understanding of Santa... These 4 notes are just a sample of the MANY notes written to either me or Santa before Chrstimas:

Don't you wish you were here?

So yesterday and today it has rained, but the week before that we enjoyed beautiful spring-like weather in the mid or upper 60s. And to Scott and Charlotte that translates to "Bathing Suit Time!" Or in Charlotte's words, "Baby Suit Time!" So they ran around inside and jumped on the trampoline outside in their baby suits. And they were also constantly saying that they need to go to the Hawaii beach house. But lest you forget that it technically IS winter, Charlotte also had to wear her hat with the fur trim. Quite an outfit.

So Cindy, how are things in New Hampshire?

The Big Show at the Little Gym

Officially Scott's semester ended at The Little Gym on Friday, so obviously they had to close with a big show. All of the parents went inside, while the kids waited to make their grand entrance. Then with Eye of the Tiger playing in the background, the door opened and Scott, Zach and Rebekah (plus a couple of other random kids) came TEARING in, sprinting as fast as they could around the big red mat. They were SO intense, and according to Scott, they were going "speed limit 94!" I am furious I didn't get that on video! Scott did a great job performing his tricks, although I don't believe we have a Paul Hamm on our hands... Here are few shots from the big show:

Scott and Zach spent half their time in class wrestling.

My favorite stocking stuffer

A few years ago my mom got tired of being responsible to fill our stockings... So we started (finally) buying stocking stuffers for each other. After a few years, I think this is one of our favorite parts about gift-giving because we all search year round for the PERFECT stocking stuffers -- which means the ones that will get the best reaction. Like when Jeff (my brother) gave me a Michael Bolton t-shirt from the Time, Love and Tenderness tour. I hate Michael Bolton. Or when I returned the favor to him and bought on eBay a XXL Hansen t-shirt (remember Mmmm Bop?), complete with the sleeves cut off.

Cindy (my sister) has been pumped for months about this stocking stuffer she found for me this year. I have to admit, it was pretty sweet! And if any of my nerd friends out there would like to borrow it for a special occasion, I am willing to share:

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!

On Christmas Eve, we started with our traditional visit from the Sanders family. They come sing to us and we give them See's candy. We grew up with the Sanders family and LOVE that we all come home for Christmas the same years! It is awesome to see what was 3 Evers kids and 6 Sanders kids now become all the original kids, plus spouses and lots of grandchildren!


After the Sanders' visit, then we had our traditional cheese fondue for dinner. Kelly is already looking forward to this dinner two years from now... It is awesome, and I PROMISE all the alcohol in the white wine boils off! (I think)


Then the kids got to open their one present for the night... They all got super cool Christmas PJs to wear! They were pretty excited about it, and Elle performed for us a few arabesques to show off.


So then all ready for bed, Scott, Elle and Charlotte left milk and cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. Scott thought we should leave 11 carrots, one for each reindeer. Not quite sure who the 10th and 1th reindeer are.


Then Uncle Jeff read Snowmen at Christmas to all the kids (great book!)...

And just before bedtime, Uncle Jeff knew about this cool thing on Google that tracks where Santa has been and where he is going. He and Scott checked it out. Santa was in South America when they started watching, and his last stop that we saw was Charlotte, NC. Once in bed, Charlotte was not being very quiet and Scott was getting a little anxious, knowing that he had to be asleep for Santa to come. He kept telling her, "Charlotte, Santa is already in North Carolina! We have to hurry and go to sleep!"


The kids actually fell asleep pretty quickly leaving the rest of us to wrap furiously for the next couple of hours. Then around 7am, Scott was awake, ready to check out what Santa brought! Christmas morning was a blur of bows, wrapping paper, and super cool toys. Scott was trilled about GeoTrax and other car stuff, while Elle and Charlotte were immediately occupied dressing up as Sleeping Beauty and Snow White and having tea parties:

Getting ready for Christmas!

Yes, this post is SO old, but I'm documenting it for posterity... There will be more Christmas posts to come!

This was an Evers year for Christmas, so Cindy and Ryan came in from New Hampshire and Jeff, Kelly and Elle made the trip from Colorado. It was SO fun this year having little kids that were incredibly pumped about Christmas! So besides the annual CostCo bonanza, here were some of the other activities getting ready for the big day...

Decorating the tree at 13168 Grandma and Grandpa's house:

Decorating the gingerbread candy house:

Charlotte and Elle looking adorable in their Christmas dresses:

Charlotte having her nails painted by Aunt Kelly:

Scott wanting in on the nail painting... Fortunately he scraped it all off after an hour:

Reading with Grandma:

Name that movie

Yes, I know I still need to post my Christmas pictures, but I got distracted with this idea... My friend Nicole did this on her blog, so I stole it from her. I have listed 10 of my favorite movie quotes. Can you guess what movie they are from? If you want to try this for yourself, use imbd.com to find quotes. You will see from my list I haven't seen many movies since, um, the 80s. I have posted the answers as a comment:

1) I'm your density. I mean... your destiny.

2) I hated her, so much... it-it- the f - it -flam - flames. Flames, on the side of my face, breathing-breathl- heaving breaths. Heaving breath...

3) You're five foot nothin', a hundred and nothin' and you hung in with the best college football team in the land for two years...

4) You know a lot of people go to college for seven years.... I know, they're called doctors.

5) I want to do something for her... but what? Well, there's the usual things: flowers... chocolates... promises you don't intend to keep...

6) I... had an experience... I can't prove it, I can't even explain it, but everything that I know as a human being, everything that I am tells me that it was real! I was given something wonderful, something that changed me forever... A vision... of the universe, that tells us, undeniably, how tiny, and insignificant and how... rare, and precious we all are! A vision that tells us that we belong to something that is greater then ourselves, that we are *not*, that none of us are alone! I wish... I... could share that... I wish, that everyone, if only for one... moment, could feel... that awe, and humility, and hope. But... That continues to be my wish.

7) I love you.... I know.

8) Oh, he's very popular Ed. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, waistoids, dweebies - they all adore him. They think he's a righteous dude.

9) I see you're drinking 1%. Is that 'cause you think you're fat? 'Cause you're not. You could be drinking whole if you wanted to.

10) You better get married soon. You're starting to look... old!