Almost Thanksgiving!

Wow! Thanksgiving is this week!! I have so much to be thankful for!

I'm grateful for my sweet, hardworking husband. He does all he can for our family and I have been able to stay home and be with our children and keep house and bake and sew! It's truly a blessing. This has been an interesting year, a financially tumultuous year, but amazingly, we are keeping our heads up. God has been great to us and we have had many tender mercies!

Rach just ended her soccer season and I'm glad for the freedom of time we have been given once again. Especially now that I am nearing the end of the pregnancy and getting more uncomfortable. HA! Rach's team, the Blue Angels, just won their last game. It was a sweet victory in the fact that the team hadn't won a game all season... they did tie a couple though. I heard from another parent that the Blue Angels did so well last year that they moved them up a division this year. I'm not sure if that is true, but they were saying that may be the reason that the girls were struggling. Rach played goalie and forward and was good at those. We are still trying to figure out if we should keep her in soccer. She enjoys it. That's good. But I don't see her trying to excel in it, which, I rather her be in something that she can be passionate about. But since she's enjoying it, and it's a nice way to meet new girls and get exercise, I think, why not just keep her in it. How does one decide on things like this?? I think she will want to keep playing because her friends do.

We also just had her Parent Teacher Conference for the first trimester and she is doing very well. That was exciting to hear. She got a lot of certificates for her reading, she is top in the class in her reading level and how much she reads. I'm proud of that since I love to read, it's nice to know I passed that on. Rach is also doing excellent in piano. It is exciting to me to watch her fingers move across the keyboard, to see her talent growing. And she is loving her horseback-riding! She loves taking care of them and being out there on the ranch. I hope she can always have this opportunity because it is good for her. I don't see her pursuing anything serious in the horse riding, like competing or anything, but just going there and taking care of them, I think she just enjoys that.

Gabs is 2 and a half now and jabbering like crazy. Very imaginative. She loves pretending things. She is into Barbie, My Little Ponies, and dress up. She likes to play the piano too. If it's Rach's turn to practice, Gabs yells, "It's my turn, it's my turn!" and jumps into the seat. So then she plays all crazy and then quickly gets off. She also plays for us at FHE, and so we just sing something to her playing, like I'm a Child of God. I can't wait for her to be in lessons in a few years! Rach and Gabs play great together and it is fun to watch them. Rach makes some great costumes for Gabs. For one FHE a couple weeks ago, we talked about wearing the Armor of God and Rach made one for Gabs out of tissue paper and foil. Pretty funny. I gotta get the picture up here.

Baby Jake is growing well and kicking and having fun in my tummy. I'm at less than 60 days now. It's fun to think of him being here so soon. We're all very excited. I finished a couple of quilts for him, I'm excited about that. My mom is going to help make the bumpers and curtains to go with one of the quilts. I like that we are designing his nursery instead of just getting a pre-packaged one from Babies R Us. No big deal about those, I just like the fact that we can say, we did that, and that the blanket will stay with him forever. :)

I/we have been richly blessed and for that I am so THANKFUL! I just wanted to make sure that I said my thanks. I am grateful for our health, (this one thing I have been really thinking about lately, I have really taken health for granted!) and for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and eternal families. I'm grateful for my calling in Primary, I love the children we have. I'm grateful for our families and our friends and our home.

If I've ever offended anyone or hurt anyone's feelings, I apologize and I pray that we can all become closer. Life is short and precious. I'm grateful to you all for being a part of our lives. We have learned much. Happy Thanksgiving!

Baby Jake

It has definitely been a long time since I have been on here. I guess there isn't that much interesting when a pregnancy is just beginning. Now I'm almost in my 7th month, it's starting to hustle! My mom gave me a wonderful present for a Mommy/Daughter date and we got to get more ultrasound pictures of Jake. I only had 3 given to me at my 20 week and they weren't good shots at all. Now that I have these new pics, I am really enjoying the pregnancy and fantasizing about life with a new baby boy. It was hard for me to be excited about him and now he seems more real with these pics.

I will post more of our happenins in a bit, but just wanted to get these pics of Jake up! Only a few more months!!

more pics

Playing "ring around the rosie" with Peyton at our pool and playing at the water park near our apt.

and other thoughts...

So it's officially June! Let the season begin! Austin has proven great for alarm sales, so that is wonderful. They have been working in Kileen (I think that is how you spell it.)

We love the library here in Cedar Park and go pretty regularly. Great childrens programs and next week starts the summer reading program that Rach is looking forward to.

I have been checking out all kinds of books on canning and preserving. Our ward here has a berry order from a farm in Oregon and so I am going to attempt to make blackberry and maybe another kind of berry like loganberry, jam. I already made refridgerator pickles and they were a recipe from a magazine, and they are the sweet kind. Not bad because I needed extra brine so I didn't add as much sugar, so they aren't as sweet as they could be, and since we all prefer dill, they are still good. I found some dill recipes so I am going to try dill next.

We also get to order tomatoes and other veggies, so I am going to order tomatoes and see if I can do my own diced tomatoes and such and jar those. That would save so much money as I am always cooking with stewed tomatoes. (chicken curry, anyone?)

I have also decided (not crazily) but we are gonna go non-dairy. My friend here has a sister that they own a cow because they have six kids and wanted to save on milk costs. So I started researching about owning our own cow and how cows produce milk, etc. So I got on some sites and basically you have to keep your cow continally having babies to keep producing milk, and all these other horrible things that I was like, ya know, we don't need to drink milk. Or eat cheese. (sob!) but yeah, it was talking about how many people have allergies to milk, that we are the only species that drink milk of another species and into adulthood, etc. I began thinking that I don't want to harm cows and I want us to be healthy, and soy is good for us. We've already been drinking soy milk (Silk) along with regular milk, but I never made the full fledge switch because I wondered how it would be with cereal, etc. Well, it works just fine. The only thing I am not sure of is with baking. But I do have powdered milk... which still comes from cows. I also looked into using margarine more so that I don't need butter. And I'm gonna have to try some soy cheese pretty soon.

But like I said, our family isn't going crazy over it. It's not like if we go to someone's house we're gonna be like, we can't eat that. No prob (unless after not eating it we get sick when we DO eat it or something), but yeah, I'm not gonna get all crazy, I just want to do my part to help out out there.

With my research on margarine, I wiki'd it and saw that it was banned in the US and other places for YEARS because of the Dairy industry because they didn't want it to affect them. I learned a lot about that in my marketing classes, how certain foods or products are used or not used because of people/groups lobbying, etc. It's kinda scary how much power is out there to affect what we can or cannot have. Anyway, now margarine is back (basically thanks to the wars, because of rationing dairy) and so here it is.

So we'll see how this goes. :)

The pictures I posted are Kev cooking in our new apt here in Cedar Park, Tx. and then our new black kitten, Romeo, cuddling to Big Fluff. They totally get along, which is a shock because Big Fluff didn't get along with Jackson. It's cute to watch them lick each other, etc. It's fun to have a kitten in the house again. He's about 6 months now. We also have our family pic at Disneyworld, which was tons of fun right before we moved here, and Kev and Gabs snuggling on the couch.

Expecting!

For those of you who don't know... We are expecting Wadell #3!! Due January 18th, we are all very excited!! Rach wants another girl, everyone else is telling me I'm going to have a boy, and I at the moment, have no feeling one way or the other, which is hard, because with Gabi, I KNEW it was going to be a girl. (and I always thought people that *knew* were nuts!)

So yeah, I'm a whole 5 weeks along and I fly back to Sac in June for my first prenatal appointment.

Oh yeah, so we were in Orlando for a whole month and the selling stunk out there, so we wrapped up the office there and moved it to Austin. It's WONDERFUL here, we love it. The sales are still up in the air as they just started yesterday, but we, as a group, love the city and people and weather. We are in Cedar Park and if we ever decide to leave Rocklin, this place comes in next of where we'd settle. We went to the local grocery and I had a note left on the car about WELCOME to Texas. I thought that was sooo sweet!!

So this is the latest haps on us. I need to get some pictures from our other comp and upload them here, but to see the apartments, we are in www.verdebrushycreek.com. Really nice.

Also, Rach is LOVING homeschooling. We are enjoying it and are glad to be doing it. Especially with the moving around so much. But it is just nice for the sense of control of what Rach is learning. And it doesn't have to be lame busy work, it is just straight to the point. So we are doing multiplication, and she writes me poems and we read poetry and history stories, read from Highlights magazine, and then there are the What Every 2nd Grader (etc.) Needs to Know... and that is a great book too. So we go over art lessons. Like we were discussing landscapes. I'm enjoying learning/relearning right along side her. Then I give Gabs some paper and she likes to color and "do her homework" too. :) Gabs is doing well with her colors and counting.

Let's keep praying for much success for Kev!

on our way...

So first stop on our way to Florida is Santa Ana to visit the grandparents, then to Mesa, then to Thatcher, AZ, then on to Houston then to Orlando. We may have additional stops along the way... And I will post some pics of our trip in a bit! Bye!

Orlando

So it's funny that I have this pic up of Kev and I that says "Orlando Temple Love" from when I went out at the end of last summer to pick up Kev from his summer sales, and now, that is where we are going for this summer! We are excited. We are planning our packing because we will be leaving soon. I will be coming back and forth throughout the summer, so many things going on!

But I have lots of Disney-fanatic friends that are sharing all the fun secrets of Disneyworld and I can't wait to take advantage of them all. The perfect thing is that Gabi is a great age to enjoy it all. She LOVES Tinkerbell, so I think we will get her a Tink outfit before we go. Of course, Rach wants the whole princess experience. I'm excited. I just can't wait to see the delight on their faces. We are gonna make some FUN memories this summer!

I will be better about this blog then too. Right now, not too much has been happening. Just school, piano, Enrichment... Rach is enjoying Faith in God. Other than that, Kev just keeps recruiting.

Bye!

Cancun Vacation

So 2009 is starting out really nice. I mean, who can beat relaxing beaches, all you can eat food all day long, strolling through Mayan ruins, and endless pina coladas? It was such a blast to go to Cancun with the APX group. We met new people and hung out with those we knew. I'm so glad that Kev sells with APX now because it has given us many wonderful opportunities.

More pics and info later!