unless you are completely obsessed with my family and just can't get enough of us, it is probably in your best interest to just scan the pictures and call it good, because this could get lengthy. A lot has happened since the last time that I felt well enough to blog about anything other than not feeling well and now it's time to play catch up. So here we go.

McKay at his preschool Valentine's Day party.

Abby received a Top Of The Rock Award for Art and Bryce received one for Spanish. Grace chose Clara Barton as her influential person. She did tons of research and worked so hard on her poster and bloom ball. She dressed up in a Red Cross apron and did a great presentation.


Sam got us third row on the floor tickets to a Nuggets game. We went with is business partner Kevin and his daughter. It was a lot of fun.

Gracie and Bryce both played basketball again this year. They both did a great job. Gracie's team won a few games and really improved over the season. Bryce's team was amazing. They were undefeated for the whole regular season. They played so well together and were very exciting to watch. The only game that was even close was their first game which they won by 6 pts. I didn't bring my camera the whole season until the last day. Bryce's team won the first game of the tournament and on the last day had a game at 9 am. Gracie also had her last game at 9 am. Sam went with Bryce since he was the assistant coach for Bryce's team and I went with Gracie and took pictures of her game. If Bryce's team had won the 9:00 game, which I was sure they would, they would be playing in the championship game at 10:30, and I would be able to get pictures. His 9:00 game was against the team that they only beat by 6 pts. and as you may have guessed by the fact that I have no pictures of him playing, they lost that game. I hear it was a great game but we lost by 3 pts. I was a little heart broken because I didn't get any pictures and because I may have been a little more emotionally invested than I would like to admit. But they were great sports and had great coaches, Sam and Derek Booth and they are all excited to play together again next year.My Sister-in-Law was in town with her two kids and my parents the weekend of the Daddy/Daughter Ball. So Sam took Abby and Gracie and my 3 year old niece Brooklyn with him. He brought them all roses then took them to dinner then to the ball to dance the night away. They were all so cute and had a good time. Then of course Abby's 10th Birthday. I already blogged a little bit about that, but here are some pictures. We went to the Lorax then to IHOP for dinner. After that we came home and the kids all wrote messages or birthday wishes to Abby and we tied them to helium balloons and let them go outside. It was super windy and a few of the balloons got stuck in a tree, but oh well, it was still fun. She got lots of clothes and Littlest Pet Shops and a webkins and my old ipod shuffle and new head phones. It was a good day. I can't even begin to believe that she is 10. It's shocking in fact. She is a smart, helpful, sweet, fun kid and I'm so very glad she's mine.

Okay, just one last thing and I think I'll be caught up. I don't have a single picture of it, but it did happen. Nate turned 13! Like an actual teenager!! We did celebrate, but I was so sick that day that it didn't even occur to me to take pictures. He had his friend Luke spent the night Sunday night. Then on Monday, which was his birthday and also President's Day so no school, we went to Star Wars in 3D then to play Laser Tag, which I passed on. Then to 5 guys for burgers. There were no presents to wrap because all he wanted was some subscriptions to some online games. He also now has a Facebook account. Oy.

That's it. I think. The last two months or so in a nut shell.

I have 3 of the 5 children packed for our trip that we leave on in 9 days. I have managed to keep my house clean and all laundry done, and folded, and put away, for a whole week now. I have even done some prep work on my garden. All while growin another person inside of me! I feel like freakin Super Woman. I forgot to mention the awesome birthday party I gave Abby yesterday. There was a cake, that I made myself, with candles, that were lit. There were presents that we're purchased and wrapped days in advance. There were balloons and streamers and the whole 9 yards. I took lots of pictures that I will post as soon as my laptop is fixed. Any way, my point is, I must be feeling better. I still puked in the bushes coming out of church on Sunday, and then a few more times on Monday, and I did have some help form Heather with the birthday stuff, which I am super grateful for, but I've been able to accomplish so much more in the last two weeks than I was able to in the 6 weeks before that put together, and for that I am super duper grateful. Other things that I am super duper grateful for are, my take-out-bringer-homer bringing me Chipotle for dinner tonight, a whole week of warm weather, and fantastic kids just to name a very few. Tomorrow I will be grateful to have my lap top back so I can post pics from the last few months, to make my posts slightly more interesting.

Tonight I was going to post a rant about bullies, and how much I H.A.T.E dealing with bullies, and how it breaks my heart, possibly even literally, to see my kid get bullied. I was going to post this rant with the promise of a more positive post to come, but I'm not ready to post the rant so for now I'm going to skip forward right to the positive post. Let's start with my baby brother becoming a daddy today!!! Baby Chloe was in no hurry to come into the world, but at over 10 lbs. she finally made her debut via c- section this morning. I can't wait to meet her cute little squishy face. Second, I am laying in bed now at 10:00 pm eating the Mac and cheese that my truly fantastic husband just made me just because I wanted some. Third, I've been in bed since 7:30 watching tv with the cutest 5 year old little boy laying next to me sleeping and softly snoring. Dang, I like that kid! Forth, Nate participated with our ward in the Castle Rock road show. They did a great job and won first place. They had two performances and were at the church from about noon until after 10:00 last night. He came home exhausted but happy. He came in the house with a big smile on his face and said "guess who got second place in road show!?" I said something like " wow, you guys got second place. That's awesome!" then he says, "no some other ward got second. We got first!!". He cracks me up. Any way, I love my family. Life is good.

I've never been so glad for a weekend to be over. With 6 wild kids for 3 full days, one sick self and a missing husband it really was the longest weekend ever. Soo hooray for Monday. Other than puking my guts out two different times today, I really am feeling better. My living room and dining room are clean so I have a nice peaceful place to sit and rest. And if anyone were to drop by they won't be tempted to call the health department to report me. That is as long as they don't wonder past the living room and dining room. I also managed to fold what I am guessing was about 9 loads of clean laundry that has been piled on my couch for the last week. Now I'm sitting here with my windows open, enjoying complete and total silence in my house. Even the birds are quite for the moment, and the phone hasn't rung since I got home from taking McKay to preschool. It's some kind of miracle. I love moments like this. It's a good day.

The children have been taking advantage of my weakened state the last two days. Playing video games all day, making messes, fighting and behaving like lunitics, and not doing their chores. So today as a Consequence for their bad behavior I'm taking them all swimming at the rec center. That'll show them. For real though they probably haven't been as bad as It has seemed to me. With the headache I've had my tolerance level was just greatly diminished. How ever today I'm feeling better, so far, and we just need out of the house before one of us goes postal. So we will be swimming at the rec center. Right now they are playing nicely outside so maybe I'll lay here a bit longer, then we'll go swimming.

My ultrasound tech has been doing her job for 8 years and rumor has it that she has only been wrong about the sex of a baby twice and that is including the guesses she has made at the 12 week ultrasounds. I've never had a 12 ultrasound called the first trimester screening before now. Maybe it's a new thing since McKay was born 5 years ago. It's in addition to the 16 week screening that is done with blood work. I opted to do it because I wanted to have another look at the little peanut and perhaps get a guess at the sex. Plus I'm going to meet my deductible this year one way or another so I figured I might as well. I'm thinking that if the ultrasound tech wasn't sure about the sex that she would have told us so, but she seemed pretty confident when she said it looks like a.....GIRL!!! Just so you know, if she had said boy I would have written that in all caps with just as many exclamation marks. We would be thrilled either way. And as far as the screening goes, everything looked lovely. So for now we are anticipating a healthy baby girl. Although I'm not painting the nursery yet, I couldn't help myself yesterday when I was in Target, and as I said in the last post I spent $200 on baby cloths. Baby girl clothes! It was a rush. So much stinking cute stuff. It was nice that Sam was feeling guilty for ditching me in my time of need and left me some extra cash. I put it to good use. And if we end up with a surprise boy, I have some nieces on the way that I will be happy I shopped for.

I would like some cheese with my whine.

Today I have a headache that even spending $200 on adorable baby clothes couldn't cure. This morning I woke up and thought i felt pretty good until i stood up to go to the bathroom. Which was when I immediately started heaving. The force of said heaving caused me to then pee my pants. It was awesome. This event did however help with making the decision of whether or not to take a shower today. After getting the kids to school, McKay and I got breakfast at Subway then did some much needed grocery shopping. Lots of preprepaired meals like frozen lasagna and frozen pizza and such. Because my take- out bringer homer is in Vegas for the rest of the week and Nate's friend is spending the rest off the week with us while his mom is in Chicago for a graduation. And though i would expect my kids to fend for themselves and live on Ramon and BP&J for the next 3 days, I would feel bad about not feeding our guest. I also picked up my Rx for Zofran which is supposed to help with nausea but clearly not with headaches. It also causes constipation. I'm for sure looking forward to more of that. I know at this point I should turn thing around and talk about something that I'm grateful for. You know, end on a positive note. But guess what. I don't want. Sorry about the TMI. No I'm not. I am however sorry about all of the missed spelled words. I'm having trouble using spell check on the iPad.