Drumroll please...

For those of you who know, we have been incredibly blessed with 3 amazing kids.  All of whom are boys.  Last summer we found out we were pregnant again!  Wow!  4 boys?!  5 if you count Dad...  hahaha! How on earth am I gonna handle 5 little men in this tiny little house?! Yikes.

So, to catch up to current day, I had a doctor's appointment yesterday, just the routine monthly checkup.  Ben, Isaac and Noah all came (for the first time this pregnancy) so they could hear the little heartbeat.  And they heard it!  Not for long cause it was moving around, but they heard it and thought it was so cool!!  The doctor asked if I had been feeling the baby kick.  I said I think so, but that I was a bit nervous because I felt the others much earlier.  He then informed me that I was measuring a week or 2 behind my original due date.  Shock waves stung my spine.  What do you mean??  I measured just fine last month, what's going on?  (Of course this was all in my head!)  I started freaking out.

The doctor said I was due for my ultrasound, but that the tech wasn't scheduled to come in for another week and a half.  So I had the choice to wait for December 4th, or he could call in a prescription so I could go to the hospital.  Uh, duh.  No brainer, Doc.  So they made an appointment for me to have the ultrasound the next day, which is today, in the AF hospital at 2:00 pm.  However, Ben was scheduled to work today, so after deliberating, I went back into the doctor's office and very sweetly asked if they wouldn't mind seeing if I could go to UVRMC, where Ben would be today, so he could sneak over and go with me.  It took a little time, but they did and I was able to get an appointment for 9:30 today.

So last night rolls around, and wouldn't you know, Ben's supervisor called and informed him that he was being sent to work at the AF hospital today because they were short handed.  Are you kidding me?!  After I made them switch the appointments?!??!  Blah!  Needless to say, I wasn't about to ask them to change it again!  And at this point I am completely freaked out thinking that something is horribly wrong, that the baby has stopped growing, there wasn't enough amniotic fluid or some other awful thing, and I wasn't about to postpone the ultrasound.  I had to know what was wrong, if anything.  So my awesome sis-in-law came to stay with the youngest 2 boys and Mom went with me to the hospital.

We checked in and waited.  Of course.  It actually didn't take too long and we were back in the ultrasound room.  I asked if they could record it for me so Ben could see everything too, and she did.  In fact, I had taken a tape for her (that's what I'd always taken with the other 3) and she informed me that with their new equipment (3D machines!!) they can make DVD's.  Woo hoo! :)  So she got that all set up and we started.

She started trying to figure out where the baby was and what position it was in, and briefly scanned the little body.  At first I thought it looked small, but then remembered it was about the same as the others.  Am I panicky or what!?  Then I thought I saw it!  Yes, that ever present boy part that seems to be a trend in our family.  But it was a quick shot.  So I said, "Oh, I have a feeling it's a boy!"  And she said, "Really, I was thinking it looked like a girl."  My heart stopped.  Not possible.  After all, when we had the ultrasound with Noah, the tech said the same thing, but he was just basing that on how I was carrying, soon to find out in pictures that um, yeah, he was a boy! :)  

Anyway, she found a little shot of the legs and little bum and I turned to Mom and said, "There's nothing there.  There's nothing there!!!"  I was in shock!  How could there not be anything there?!?!?!?  We looked and looked and looked and nothing popped out, or came out from behind the cord or anything.  Could this really be happening!?  Michelle (the ultrasound tech) said, "Yep, looks like a girl to me!"  HOLY COW!!  HOLY COW!!  Are you kidding me?!  Nope, folks, it looks like it REALLY is a girl!  Wow.  Wow.  Wow.

She kept checking everything to see if all was well, the brain, all 4 chambers of the heart, the lungs, kidneys, stomach, diaphragm, bladder, spine, head, arms, hands, legs, feet, everything.  And all is well so far!!  She is measuring at 18 weeks, and I thought I was 19, so we're not too far off.  The placenta looks good and in tact, there's enough fluid for the baby and my kidneys look good.  (Don't know why she checked them, but she did it deliberately!)  We even had time to try and get some 3D shots.  This little child didn't really want to cooperate very well, she kept moving all over the place and changing positions like mad, so it was really hard, but we did end up with an adorable 3D image of her (yes, HER!  ahhhh!!) hand, and a pretty good one of her leg.  It was completely amazing and SUCH a blessing!  To be able to see your baby's little fingers at this stage is remarkable.  Let alone from inside the womb.  It was an experience I will never forget.  Wow.

On the way to the car I called Ben.  He asked how everything went and I said fine, that everything looked good and we couldn't see any problems.  "So, another boy, eh?"  "NOPE!"  "OH...  MY.... GOSH..."  He was as shocked as I was!  It was too funny!  :)  He's very excited and, like me, thrilled that there are no apparent problems with this new little baby.  Phew!

So there you have it.  Baby GIRL Rodriguez is scheduled to make her entrance sometime in April.  We'll have to wait and see if the doctor changes her due date based on this new info, but she's coming!  That's for sure!  

N is Famous!!! Ok, sorta.

Thanks to the ever talented photographer Nicole Hill, our sweet Noah is on the cover of the new Discovery Toys catalogue!!  Woo hoo!!  (Click here to see it.)  Nicole did a photo shoot with Noah ages ago for RubberBall, the stock photo company she works with.  Apparently, Discovery Toys purchased his photo from RubberBall's inventory (I believe this is how it works), and used it for their catalogue.  How cool is that!!  I can't believe how much he's grown in just over a year.  Wow!!  (He's the cutie on the left.  He's has the biggest photo on the page cause he's just that cute! hehehe!)

Sup.

Yes, it's been a very long time since my last post.  Bad blogger, bad.  I really don't mean to neglect it, but when there are only so many things to be done in a day, or month, um, or summer, ugh, then something has to give, and it's been the blog.  Sorry! :)  I hope you are all well and haven't missed us too much!  ha!

Ok, so there have been SOOO many things happen since last time we talked, trips to Texas and Washington, Matthew having his first eye exam and needing some sweet-awesome glasses (photos to come as soon as the glasses do...), babies being conceived, Isaac's traumatic trips to the dentist, Noah learning to talk like a CHAMP!! and on and on!  OH! And Ben passing his last national board exam to become an official RRT (registered respiratory therapist) YYYYEEEAAAAHHHH!!!!  Holy cow, that was a long time coming and soooo worth it!  We're so proud of you, Daddy!!

Anyhoo, I just wanted to drop by and let you know we're all alive and doing well.

Here are a couple of photos from our most recent trip, visiting Natalie, Dan and fam in Washington.  Thanks, guys!  We had a BLAST!

Dad and boys on the beach... Super cold water,

but that didn't bug the boys!

"Sleep over" with the cousins.

Emma, Isaac, Erika, Noah, Lauren and Matthew.

Discovery Park

We decided to take a quick trip to Discovery Park this morning (Isaac's been asking to go to the "wood park" for weeks, so I finally gave in!).  We got there a bit before 10 and the kids had a BLAST!  But by 11 it was getting pretty hot, and all that wood started to heat up and get musty, so we left and bought some Daylight Donuts for breakfast.  It was a fun morning!

Here are a few quick shots I snapped.  Not the best, but I thought they were kinda cute!  

Here is Noah working his way UP the slide!

He actually did it, over and over again!  He thought he

was pretty cool!

They have a really awesome "rocket" with 2 "captain's chairs"

so Matthew and Isaac decided to take a trip to outer space!  Too fun!

This is Isaac as he's coming into the rocket.

I was able to get Noah to turn around and look down the slide

when he got to the top, and I caught this cute grin!

And I think this might be my favorite shot.

Just playing with the shadows a bit! :)

Hope you are all having a groovy day!  Hopefully I'll be back to post more soon! :)

A new page!! Yay!

There was a fun speed scrap at ScrapMatters.com tonight (where you get rules for your LO, one at a time, every 10 minutes for an hour and then have one additional hour to complete your LO... Fun, fast and furious!!)  Anyhoo, this is the page I did.  I feel so accomplished!!  :)

Happy Father's Day!!

Ok, I know it's way past Father's Day, but we just celebrated yesterday.  Since we've been out of town and Josh & Britt were out of town for a bit, we just decided to wait until everyone could get together.  I've been itching to post this photo for SOOOO long!  I can't believe I was actually able to wait until yesterday to give this to Ben (it's been ready for almost a month!), but I did it!  This is the present that we (we being M, I & N) gave Daddy for Father's Day.  Photography and Photoshop genius by the incomparable Brittney!  Not to mention that this amazing idea was her brain-child (thanks a billion, Britt!).  Isn't she amazing?  Anyway, here is the photo.  Every time I look at it I just giggle!  Ah!  I framed it in a simple black frame and I think Ben loved it!  Yay!

To check out more of Britt's photography, visit her photo blog here.

I'm really alive, I promise...

I didn't die in a car crash or fall of the face of the earth, I guess I've just been super busy and felt guilty about not blogging, so I kept putting it off! Well, I'm back and I have SOOOO much to share! I'm not going to try and go back to where I left off, but I'll go back a couple of weeks anyway.

Just before we went to Texas (we just got back from almost 2 weeks in Corpus - more on that later), Kelly and Isabelle came to town. Yeah! :) We were able to visit them at Kelly's uncle's ranch and show the boys horses for the first time. They had such a great time!

Kelly and I were both snapping away and got some fun pics of the kids.

Here is my little cowboy playing stick-em-up with his bros.

The actual horse. Matthew and Isabelle posing, reluctantly to us,
but inside thrilled :)! Aren't they the cutest!?!?

Bell showing us how to feed a horse.
She is very knowledgeable, and a great little rider! :)

Isaac and I gave it a shot. Hey, it worked!
Whaddaya know!?

Just enjoying the incredibly windy day...

We drove to another part of the property to check out the pond.
We snapped this little photo from the car as M & B walked along the path.
Aren't they adorable!? OMGoodness! They aren't really holding hands,
we just snapped at the EXACT moment their hands swung together.
They aren't even walking side by side. But years from now I'll claim differently! :)

M & B in a cool silhouette shot in front of the pond.

Getting into the canoe...

In the canoe! :) Kell, Bell, Isaac and Matthew.

And finally, walking back to the car. Cutie petutie Noah!

Ok, so it's late and I'm tired and Ben has to be at work WAY too early tomorrow, so I'll post more tomorrow - hopefully! :) We'll get into swimming lessons and Texas. Don't go crazy in anticipation now! ;) Ha! Goodnight!

Oooooo Baby!!

If you've ever thought about getting into digital scrapbooking, NOW is the time!! Check this out! They are going to have all kinds of challenges and FREEBIES!! so don't miss it!

Cute Story...

I just wanted to pop in to tell you a cute little story that happen with Isaac at church today.  They combined our ward with 75% of another ward a while back, so unless you get to Church half an hour early, you don't get a seat.  Like that is going to happen with 3 small boys!!  So we were sitting in the lobby trying SOOO hard to get the kids sit quietly during Sacrament, in the hopes that not only we would get something out of the talks, but that something would sink in for the kids as well...  Well I don't know how much they understood, but Isaac for sure heard something!  The speaker was talking about the Holy Ghost and Isaac blurts out, "THE HOLY GHOST!!?!  We met him at Disneyland!!!"  It was the funniest thing ever!  I tried so hard not to laugh!  Ben and I just looked at each other and tried to be grown up, but seriously, it was hard!  He just seemed so proud to know about something they were saying!  Too cute!

The Haircut

We finally decided it was time to cut some of Noah's gorgeous locks. :( I hated to see them go, but, sadly, it was time. The thing that finally convinced me was the fact that we could put his hair in a pony tail. What? Yes, it's true. Look.

Ok, does this one not look like he's a little

Sumo ready to strike!?! Hehehe!!

So after the impromptu photos on the front lawn, we brought little Noah in for the cut. We started The Bee Movie, of course - he doesn't move a muscle if it's on, and started the cut! Here is one last "before" shot of those amazing curls... Bye, bye, my lovelies.

And on to the chopping. May we have a moment of silence in memoriam? Thank you.

Did you notice that my arm was in direct conflict
to Noah's view of his bees? Note the head lean...

He didn't move while I cut. In fact if I asked him to sit up
or move forward, he just did it! He didn't ever complain!
Little trooper!

Here is the final result... Drum roll please......

Ta da!! What a cutie!!

Genetics, man!

Have you ever seen Stupid Human Tricks on David Letterman? That's what I felt like we were doing with Noah the other day. Everyone in the fam can roll their tongues, so we were trying to find out if Noah got that gene or not. We all showed him our stupid human trick, and he eventually did it!! I couldn't believe our sweet little 16 month old could do it! I was such a proud mama!

The Bee Movie

Have you seen it? If you haven't, you should! We love it around here. I think Ben and I laugh harder than the boys!! This is a pic of the boys watching it... Notice that NONE of them are running around screaming? Not even Noah. In fact, Noah will just sit and watch it start to finish without even blinking! And if you get in his way, he'll just lean one way or another until he can see those bees again! :) It's too cute!

First Signs of Spring

We were finally able to spend a little time outside a while ago! The winter seemed to be over (although 2 days ago we woke up to SNOW!!! AH!) so we let the kids run around in the back for a while. They had a blast!

Yes, Matthew is feeding Noah lunch.
How cute is that!?

Ah, what a good big brother!

Long, Long Ago...

We went to Disneyland for Matthew's 3rd birthday, way back in 2004.  Have I done anything with the pictures yet?  Umm.....  No.  Until now!  Britt just came out with a new "Disneyesque" kit that is amazing, so I dug out some of these old pictures to work with...  I'm not done yet, it's going to be a 2 page layout, but I thought I'd post it now to show off her fantabulous new kit! :)

You can check out the kit here...

The Canyon

The boys and I decided to take a drive up the canyon last month to see whether or not the waterfall was frozen. It's had been SOOO cold that of course it was. It was beautiful! And because Ben was working and wasn't going to be home for an hour or so, we kept going up the canyon to check out Deer Creek. I have never seen it completely frozen and covered with snow before. It was stunning! The sun was shining perfectly and I couldn't help but stop to take a picture.

Bridal Veil Falls - Icy, eh?!

If you didn't know this was a lake, wouldn't you think it was
a great big field of snow!? I'm so glad we drove up to see it!

And yes, that is a wild moose. It was trying to reach food
on the other side of the fence. Matthew and I were pretty
excited to see it. First wild moose I've ever seen! :)

On the way home we stopped by Sundance and
found this buried stop sign. Wow!

This is my favorite photo... Ahhh.

Curls Anyone?

This one is especially for Grandma Texas.  She's been asking for us to post pictures of Noah's curls, so this is what I came up with.  I don't know if you know this, but curls are really hard to photograph on a moving baby!!  This is from a couple of months ago, and if you can imagine, his hair is even longer and more curly now! :)  Although, the time is rapidly approaching for us to cut those lovely locks...  A little old man thought he was the cutest little girl!  As if!!! :)

Laundry Anyone?

I am extremely relieved to say that the laundry is not only done, but it's actually all put away. Yee haw!! Finally! However, there was a point at which my sweet baby's room looked like this. Can you see children? No? Well they are there, having buried themselves within the black hole that was the laundry pile. Luckily, I was able to grab them just before they were sucked into oblivion. They are doing fine now and healing quickly! :)

Cool Kids!

How cool is it that I get to be home to take pictures of my kids doing the funniest things? Way cool! Ok, so a couple of weeks ago, the first week I was officially a SAHM, Isaac decided that he would build a fort. My boys LOVE building forts... but most little boys do! Well, Matthew was at school and not around the help lug the big couch cushions around, so Isaac made do on his own! As you can see, he did ok!

He took great pride in arranging that pillow just so, helping Noah in and covering them both with that blanket! I couldn't resist snapping a shot of them. Oh, I'm loving this!! Now, if they had only fallen asleep, this would have been the best fort ever created by man, woman or child. Oh well, they had a blast!

Ok, so basically he just pushed the seat cushion

onto the floor, but it served as a "wall," so
I deem this an official fort! Way to go, buddy!!

It's been too long!

I can't believe it's been so long since my last post! I thought I would have all this extra time to get things organized and projects done and spare time to blog and scrap, but it appears I'm more busy than ever! I can't believe that giving up a full time job outside the home would be replaced by more than a full time job INSIDE the home! I guess what everyone told me was true, you really don't have extra time at all!

Anyhoo, on to better things. I just finished some layouts that I wanted to share. The first is using Britt's newest kit, "Dreams Do Come True." It's definitely my favorite kit of hers so far. It's AMAZING! And if you check out her blog (link to the right), you'll find an A-MA-ZING freebie that coordinates with it! Be SURE to check it out!



Next is a layout for a Challenge I'm hosting at scrapmatters.com. (You should come by and check it out... Play along and you could win FREE stuff!!! SWEET!) Anyway, for the challenge you have to include 2 memorabilia items that AREN'T photos, and 1 photo. This is what I came up with. It's Josh and Britt's first date (we got to double with them.) TOTALLY fun night!



And last, but not least, here are a few photos of my ever growing boys. Aren't they SO cute!? Ok, so maybe I'm a little biased, but STILL! These are from our recent trip to the dinosaur museum. They had a BLAST!

Here is Noah eating a chicken nugget. Very interesting, I'm sure, but it's one of the best of him at the museum. Sad!

This is Matthew and Isaac playing in one of the exhibits.
The kids get to "build" sand banks to bury the dinos.
They have water constantly flowing as well so the banks "erode"
to show the dinos and then they can dig them up.

Yes, it's true. Isaac has tamed that savage beast!

And finally, Matthew narrowly escaping the gaping jaws of
the world's largest shark! It was a close one, but everyone
seem to be doing fine!

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

God Be With You...

As we gathered as a family last night for dinner, none of us were expecting the phone call that would change the face of our Church today. At about 8:00 pm we received word that our dearly loved Prophet had passed away about an hour before. We were, needless to say, a little stunned. This amazing, gentle, yet powerful man has lead the Church for the past 12 years, and at the age of 97 was finally called home. He was a truly remarkable man. I can only imagine the tender reunion that awaited him, not only with his beloved wife, Marjorie, that he has missed so much, but with our Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ. I can almost hear the words, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Well done." Of all men who walk the earth today, he was most sincerely, the closest to heaven of all I've ever known. We will miss you, President Hinkley, but we're so grateful to know exactly where you are. God be with you until we meet again.