It's a boy!

So we had our ultrasound on December 22nd, and the tech (or whatever they're called) put the gender pictures in our card so that we could open it on Christmas. It was AWESOME!! I loved it, the ultrasound was so much fun, he (the tech) kept saying the baby was a stinker, then he made the comment that this baby was the one that parents warn you about. So I told Randy after we left that if it was a boy his dad was getting his wish (just for clarification, Randy's dad). So after the tech put it in the card and the envelope Randy made sure to seal it and put it back in the plastic bag it came in so I couldn't cheat, he didn't need to do all that. So when we got home I decided it would be fun to put it in a box with the video (we couldn't watch the movie because it shows the gender on there. So I put them both in the box, then wrapped that and put a tag on it that said "To: the Grimes Family From: Heavenly Father" I know, it was really cheesy but I was in a really funny mood that day. So we unwrapped that one last, and LeeAnn who had stayed with us Christmas Eve recorded it and we opened it. It was very fun to be able to open it with the girls there too, I actually really enjoyed not finding out what the sex was at the ultrasound. It was nice just to enjoy the ultrasound, not knowing what the gender was. After we were done here, we went to Randy's moms house and opened our presents there and let them open the card. Randy's mom just starting crying when she saw that it was a boy! Then LeeAnn was willing to curl my hair (I LOVE it when people do my hair). Then we headed over to my family's house where we ate lunch and opened presents there. We had my dad open the card and when he said it was a boy my mom and sister screamed! It was SO funny!! We had a very good Christmas! It was a lot of fun, when we were all done with family stuff we came home and ate dinner and then just hung out. It was a fun day! So anyway, here we go with a new adventure, I'm a little nervous about having a boy, it will be a whole new thing. We are all very excited though, I don't know what Hailey would have done if it was a girl, she had her heart set on a boy. She has always said it was a boy, ever since the beginning. What a cute little kid! Well, things are going well here, we're excited to get our tax returns done and get our credit card debt paid off!! WooHoo!!!! We'll also fix the van too, I'm very excited. Anyway, yeah, things are good. I thought I'd put some of the ultrasound pictures here just because I think it's so amazing! I'll have to add some of our Christmas pictures later, I haven't gotten them off the camera yet. Anyway, I'm sorry it took so long to update my blog, it's been a really busy month! Till next time, have fun!!

So this one is kind of alien-ish, but here are his eyes.

This is a side shot and his hand is covering his face

This one is labeled, it's a profile shot

His foot is on top of his other foot, I absolutely LOVE this shot!

Perhaps this is inappropriate, but here is the famous gender shot. There's no mistaking the fact that it's a boy! Hopefully no one is offended by this shot :0)

One week to go

Only one more week until Christmas!! I am so excited, I can't wait for the kids to open their presents. I will also be finding out what we're having on Christmas! I am excited and nervous all at the same time. I love this time of year though, it's one of my favorite times. Although, it's not quite the same when you're the grown up, but I still love it. Especially for my kids now, they are so excited for Christmas, Hailey made a chain at school and every morning she takes a chain off then counts how many days are left. I really don't have more to say, so this will probably be a short post which is totally unlike any of my other posts. All those who know me know I'm a talker :)

I guess I'll leave with something that Hailey did last night, I was sitting on the couch and she came and stood in front of me, and while sort of crying said she didn't want to be a mom, I made sure I heard her right and sure enough that's what she'd said. So I asked her why she didn't want to be a mom and she said "Because I don't want to leave you" I tried not to laugh as I could see she was really concerned about this. So I reassured her that I would always be there, and then I said that she had years to wait for that so not to worry about it right now. It's funny what kids choose to worry about. What silly gooses!! Right now Hailey is pretending to be Zoe, funny thing is she put on a diaper all by herself (or with Katie's help I'm not sure). Zoe wears a size 5 diaper, and it fits Hailey, also, she is wearing one of Zoe's onesies and, you guessed it, it fits! I can't believe how small Hailey still is. She weighed herself the other day, 32.2 pounds. Wow, Katie is almost caught up to her. I always get asked if they are twins. I can't tell you how many times I've said the words "No, they're actually two years apart, she's just small" I don't think they look like twins at all! Oh well. Anywho, now I really have nothing else to say, so au revoir!! I hope everyones last week to Christmas goes well!!

The Return

FINALLY!! We have our computer back, it's working for now but we're also getting another one. This one is so dead, hopefully the one we're getting will be better. We also have our van back, YEAH!! We were told it needed a new transmission so we parked it for 6 months, and the battery died. About a month ago we bought a new battery so that I could at least use it to take Hailey to school. Then Randy's grandma wanted to help us get it fixed so she paid to have us take it to another car garage. The guy there looked at it, he said the transmission fluid was low so he filled it then re-set the transmission and told us to bring it back in a week to run a diagnostic. So we drove it for a week, took it back, had the diagnostic run on it, and it was fine! Nothing came up. So now we just need to get the windshield replaced, have safety and emissions done and get it registered. I can't wait, we're getting a cash back check from our car insurance and we're going to use that to pay for it. So we'll be doing it all on the 18th (hopefully). It is so nice to have a vehicle again, I don't go a lot of places but it's nice to have the option!!

In way of other news, we're doing great!! We're getting ready for Christmas, and getting more and more excited every day! LeeAnn (for those of you that don't know, she's my sister-in-law) is going to stay here with us on Christmas Eve, I'm really excited for her to be here. So far the girls have made it pretty easy, the only thing Hailey talks about getting is a remote control truck, and Katie says she wants the same thing. So as long as we get that for them I think they'll be happy!! I'm excited too because I know what I'm going to get Randy and I'm pretty sure he'll like it, I'm not going to say what it is, but I am really excited to get it for him. I'm also excited and a little nervous to find out if we're having a boy or a girl. I would love a boy, but at the same time, I think I'd be a little scared to have a boy, I'm so used to girls. We'll just have to wait and see, I'm excited no matter what the outcome. If you want to take a guess as to what we're having, you'll probably want to get your guesses in now.

Well, I've rattled on and on for long enough, hope I didn't bore you too much, just wanted to get ya'll caught up!

Pictures

This is Katie on her birthday, I think she likes being the center of attention

These are some of the gifts that Katie got, we let Zoe model them too

Katie got a tea set, and they decided they wanted a tea party with cookies and gummy treats

Here's Katie will all her birthday jewelry on. She's such a cute kid

Here's Hailey modeling all her jewelry, they all looked so cute!

Here's all of the girls, Zoe doesn't look very happy

Here is the snowman Hailey made, Virginia helped with the face and the crown.

Here they all are with the snowman

Katie bundled up for the cold weather, they sure love the snow!

Here's Zoe, I love her grin.

This was sometime this fall, she looked so cute, I had to take a picture

Zoe was a "fierce" lion, I love this shot because you can't see her face.

Again, our "fierce" lion! I love the binky!

Here's Katie, she wanted to be a ghost just like Hailey

Hailey climbed up in Virginia's trunk when she was done. She was content to eat and pass out candy

I love how photogenic this girl is. This was sometime this fall, Randy raked the leaves so they could play in them.

Here are all three playing

Hailey, Zoe and Eva. They had so much fun!

*HUGS*

She is so stinkin' cute!! I really wish I was this photogenic!

Still here

Wow, it's been so long since I've been able to post anything. We haven't had a computer for a couple of weeks now. Our desktop just decided to not turn on, and the cord for our laptop isn't working so it doesn't charge the laptop. So we've only had our Ipods, which wouldn't be fun to write a post on, so it's been kind of sad. Anyway, but we're still here, we're all doing well. Hailey is loving school and the boys there. Katie turns four tomorrow, we had her birthday party yesterday, it was a lot of fun. Zoe is cute and a stinker at the same time, she must be in the terrible two stage. I have learned so much through Zoe, I am so thankful to have her in our family. We've been talking a lot about the gender of this baby that's coming, and I am so grateful for the lessons I've learned from Zoe. I don't know how many know this, but when I was pregnant with Zoe I thought for sure I was having a boy, and when I found out it was a girl I had a hard time with it. I felt disappointed, and upset, and I was irrational. Then a week later once I picked out her name then I got excited. I have learned that Heavenly Father knows what he is doing. I love my little Zoe SOOO much!! I can't imagine life without her, I'm grateful for the opportunity I've had to go through this experience. If we have another little girl I am going to be so excited!! I seriously am excited for whatever we have, of course I'm hoping for a boy but it won't matter one bit if it's not! I love my kids so much, they all have a part in our family that is irreplaceable!! So I have a TON of pictures I've wanted to post, we have some fun times here. One major thing that has happened that I'm REALLY excited about, we gave our guinea pigs to a good family! Yeah!!!! I don't have to take care of them anymore! They were a lot of fun, but more work than I could handle right now. It sounds like they're going to a good family. Little Hailey was quite upset when she got home and I told her, but we are getting her a stuffed hamster that comes with a carrying case, and she's just fine now! I am so glad to have them go to a good home, where they'll play with them and give them attention.

More news, I have my ultrasound on December 22nd, but we're going to ask the technician who does it to put the picture of the gender in an envelope and then we'll open it on Christmas morning. I'm really excited! I think it will be a ton of fun to find out what the baby is with the girls sitting there. So we'll see, I think it will be fun!! Well, I'm going to put an entire post on here with pictures, I hope enjoy!

Halloween

So, Halloween turned out great this year, we went to two trunk-or-treats and then we went and visited my grandma. When we returned home my family and some friends were here and we partied for awhile. It was a lot of fun, at first I was a little worried about how Zoe would react to all the costumes. When Hailey and Katie got in their costume and we painted their face Zoe was genuinely scared of them! They couldn't come near her, it was kind of funny but frustrating at the same time. Thankfully we went with our good friend Virginia and her daughter so she took Hailey and Katie in her car. By the time we got to the first trunk or treat Zoe was finally ok with them. She was so cute saying trick or treat and then thank you. All the girls did well, Hailey was so independent it kind of drove me nuts because we had to keep calling her back and she'd get frustrated that we were going so slow. We went to a trunk or treat in Woodland hills (Virginia's in-laws live up there and invited us to go) there was a guy there who was dressed up and when Katie went up to him either he made a noise or something in his car did, but it scared Katie really bad. She dropped her candy bag, screamed and ran behind Randy. She didn't seem to care about her candy bag, she just knew she didn't want to be by him. It was HILARIOUS!! They had a lot of fun, unfortunately now they have a lot of candy. We only let them have a little bit at a time, but MAN!!! It doesn't take much sugar in their blood stream (especially Hailey) to give them a TON more energy. I'll tell ya, I'm ready to sell them for a few days! Of course, I could never do that, because even though sometimes I'm ready to, I love them, and they are cute! Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures from Halloween soon, I have to install the program on the laptop because our desk top isn't working right now. Well, until then, enjoy!!

Slacker

Wow, I've been such a slacker lately, I'm sorry. We worked on our computer for a couple of days and for the past few the monitor has been our tv so I haven't felt like using the wireless keyboard and I haven't had time to sit down and type. Anyway, I have so much to blog about, Zoe had her 2nd birthday, it was a lot of fun! I love her so much, our family wouldn't be the same without her, she is such a cutie!! I do have some pictures, I'll post some hopefully soon. So I set up my doctor appointment today, I'll go in for blood work and the insurance talk on November 3rd and then I'll actually see my doctor on the 6th. It's crazy that they're that far out! I went to Baby Your Baby and got on that, and now I am in the process of applying for Medicaid. I hate getting stuff like this, but it helps SOO much! I guess if we qualify why not, right?

So I'm finishing this post finally, it's a few days later but better late than never right? So our computer isn't working, it won't turn on so I am using our laptop (thank Heaven we didn't give it away) we erased everything on it and it works so much better now. It's nice to have a back up, hopefully PC laptops can fix it, if not, we're in trouble. So anyway, life is going ok I guess, we're hanging in there. This month has been a hard one, I've had really great ups but really bad lows. Do you ever just want someone to talk to who won't say anything back but the occasional ya uh-huh or nod of the head? Someone who will focus on JUST you for maybe five or ten minutes? Lately I feel really alone in that arena, it's great that I have Randy who listens to me, but being a guy he wants to fix it when I just want someone to listen. I know I used to be the kind that just talked and talked about myself (Heather can attest to this), but I've really tried to be better about that and listen to others and be there for them. I feel like I've really improved in this area (I could be wrong, but I'm hoping I'm not), but every once in a while, it would be really nice to be the one focused on and venting frustrations. Perhaps the answer I'm looking for is as simple as prayer, maybe I just need to learn to pray with ALL my heart and learn to meditate and feel His spirit. Maybe then I'll receive the spiritual nods, uh-huh's and yups I'm seeking. How come the simplest answers always seem to be the hardest things to do? Oh well.

So, on a more positive note, this week is Red Ribbon Week at Hailey's school, they have a few fun activities going on, like tomorrow! It's crazy hair and sock day and CAN"T wait!! I am going to do Hailey's hair crazy and let her borrow some of my toe socks, I'm going to put them on over her pants. I think it will be so much fun! Then on Friday it's their Halloween party and I volunteered to help, I'm excited to be able to be there for that. They also have a parade at 10 that morning, how fun! Then of course Halloween is on Saturday, and it will be fun to take the girls around to get some treats (parents are allowed to share right?) I'm way excited to see them all dressed up. Hailey and Katie are going to be ghosts and Zoe will be the Lion, the same one that the other two girls have been. My sweet mom sewed Hailey and Katie's costumes, she was here until 3:40 the other morning sewing, and then she had to come back the next day to finish. I love that woman!! Wow, this post is really long, if you made it to the end of this post you're a real trooper! I'm sure I'll have more later, and hopefully I'll be able to post pictures soon! Until next time, talk to you later!!