Tori Pictures and Blessing!

This past Sunday, Noveber 2nd, we blessed Tori Jacqueline. It meant a lot to have so much family come in to town to help us celebrate this very important event. Tori slept all through the blessing and sacrament, but when it came time to take pictures she lost it and cried through most of them.

I forgot to mention one funny thing that happened while I was in the hospital. When I got into my post-op room after having Tori, I was getting ready to call it a night when I reached out to answer the telephone and my IV popped out. Blood literally started squirting everywhere. I mean everywhere!!! I was holding Tori at the time and she was absolutely covered in my blood. I called for the nurse and told her my IV had come out. When she walked in she started to freak out because of all the blood. She couldn't believe that I wasn't freaking out also. Because I give injections and see blood all the time with my job this did not bother me at all. I was more annoyed that I had to have all my sheets changed and poor Tori needed to be cleaned up before I could get some sleep. The nurse covered Tori up completely before she left my room to change her so that people in the hallways wouldn't see all the blood that covered her. I should have taken a picture, j/k!!!

Joe's mom was able to fly out for the blessing! It was so fun to have her here!

Princess Cinderella and Super Girl

Halloween was so much fun this year. Joe's mom was in town for Tori's blessing so she was able to help us celebrate and carve our pumpkins. Madison surprised me this year and decided she didn't want to be a princess and wanted to go as Super Girl and Ashley chose Princess Cinderella.

Soccer Saturdays!

Madison loves to play soccer and actually is quite good at it too. She chose to go to her soccer game early last week instead of going to the Pumpkin Patch. Is this kid for real??? I just love the picture below because it truly shows her competitive nature and how hard she plays out there. She takes this sport seriously. Right before Madison is flying through the air and headed for the goal post she kicks the ball in for a goal. Her collar bone smashed into the goal post and she was pretty upset about it. But, as soon as I told her she should rest the injury she quickly said it didn't hurt anymore and ran off to continue playing. No way did she want to sit out! This is Madison's team. They are called the Fire Dragons! Madison has had a lot of fun with her team this year because most of them go to her school and are in kindergarten with her.

Tori Jacqueline Holbrook has arrived!!!

Tori Jacqueline Holbrook arrived on Septemeber 30th at 3:12 p.m. She weighed in at 8 lbs. 3 oz and is 20 1/2 inches long. We named her after my sister Jackie who died from cancer September 8th, 2006. The labor and delivery went well and she was out in 1 1/2 pushes. I know you all wanted to know that little detail. Madison and Ashley are thrilled big sisters and are always trying to sneak peeks and hold her whenever they can. It is too cute!

This is the same little outfit that Madison and Ashley wore when they left the hospital as infants.
Very proud big sisters!

My dad holding grandkid #21

Dental Office Baby Shower!

Joe's dental office threw me an unbelievable baby shower. Everyone and their families were invited and we enjoyed fun, laughter, catered food, and many beautiful and much needed baby items.

This cake was homemade and tasted so so good. There were sliced strawberries filling the middle! Talk about heaven!
My sister-n-laws Jennifer and Angie.
Okay, so these two pictures are for all of you out there who keep emailing and bugging me, J/K, for some belly shots. I have about two weeks left and I can't believe the time is finally here.

HORRIBLE TIMING!!!

Right now I feel like my life is in total chaos. You probably read from a previous post that we had a terrible plumbing leak under our kitchen. Well, after removing our kitchen floor, it was determined that all the kitchen cabinets that rested on the floor needed to be replaced too. So a two day project turned into a much bigger ordeal than first anticipated. Yesterday morning demolition began and we are now without a kitchen. They even took the sink!!! Talk about horrible timing. I have about two weeks left in this pregnancy and my entire kitchen/pantry is in my family room and in the nursery. After many talks with my OB about inducing early I pray that we can keep her incubating for a couple of more weeks. My biggest concern lately has been if there is mold now airborne and the harm it could do to my girls and a newborn. A "mold" specialist is supposed to come and do some tests. We might be moving out for a while!!! Who wants to bring a baby home in a mold, construction nightmare.

Labor Day Weekend

I was so excited for this holiday because it meant one extra day we could spend together as a family. Things have been so crazy around here because of a HUGE plumbing problem we have been having. We noticed large cracks forming around our fireplace and front door and our kitchen floor has been bubbling and settling. We haven't been able to open our front door because of this. After investigation we were notified that we had an active hot water pipe spraying under our kitchen floor causing our house to settle. I have had plumbers here everyday for about a week and next construction will begin to replace the front door and all the wood and linoleum in the kitchen. To top everything off our baby could be here in about two weeks because of her large size. I think I am going to see if we can wait as long as possible to have her. Who wants to bring a newborn home in the middle of construction???
So, after all this drama lately, I was super excited to get away for the day with my family and go swimming at my brother's pool, have a BBQ, and enjoy the fireworks!!! The girls had a blast as usual and the fireworks show was unbelievable.

"Hollywood" Baby Shower

Even though I am having baby girl #3, Laura (my boss), threw me the most amazing shower at her beautiful home. It truly was a "HOLLYWOOD" shower. An amazing dinner was served with all the fixins along with the most delicious, "home-made" desserts you can possibly imagine. The other hygienist that works at the office, provided all the floral arrangements. These flowers made my arrangements from my wedding look pathetic in comparison. They were absolutely breathtaking.

This picture doesn't do the flowers justice. I quickly took this photo right before I was leaving!
A girl in our ward is famous for making "tye-dye" outfits.
Just some of the gang!!!

Many, many thanks to all those that helped with my shower. It was so much fun and I really took home some fabulous gifts.

We are officially due Oct. 2nd, but at my last appointment my doctor said our baby is going to be pretty big, so he wants to look at inducing aroung the 38th week if things look ready!!!

I completely understand now how you get bigger with each pregnancy. I have only put on 14 pounds so far, but look like a house. My brother-n-law, Brett, never lets me forget!!!

Madison's First Day of Kindergarten!

Madison has been so excited to start Kindergarten that she couldn't wait to get up today and get dressed to go. When I walked her into the Kindergarten play yard, we put her backpack and lunch bag away and then she says, "Okay mom, you can go now!" Does she sound ready to go or what? Last week she had mentioned she had to make new friends and was too shy, but this morning she seemed fine. Of course I wanted to stay and see her march into her new classroom with the rest of the parents.

Madison is waiting for the time to jump in the car and go.

Madison had to wear that tag pinned to her shorts that says who will be picking her up after school! Ashley was bummed she couldn't go to school too! She goes to preschool T, W, and Th.
Lining up after the whistle! Madison is a head taller than the rest of her class. It was funny how most of the parents would talk to Ashley thinking she was the one starting Kindergarten.

Happy Birthday Dad

My Dad celebrated his 73rd birthday on August 11th. Ashley sure enjoyed his birthday dessert at Outback!

Summer Fun!

It has been a while since my last post. With computer problems, a digital camera that went in a sink full of water, and a busy summer schedule, blogging has been on the back burner. We have had such a fun-filled summer that it has just flown by. I can't believe Madison starts kindergarten next week. How did she get so old so quick???

The following pictures are some of the things that have occupied our time and have made our summer something to remember

Breakfast in bed for Joe's 31st birthday! Yes, Ashley is holding a Rock Star. They knew what he wanted to drink with his pancake and egg sandwich!!!

Joe celebrated his 31st birthday on July 26th. The week before his birthday I arranged for my family to take the girls so I could surprise Joe with an all day spent by ourselves. I told Joe we had to be at my parent's house by 9 a.m. so we could help them load up some tiles for their new patio. Joe never complained and agreed! He was very excited to hear we were dropping the girls off and we were headed for a day of fun.

Ashley and Madison had swimming lessons at the YMCA. They absolutely loved it. I can't believe how much chlorine is in the pool. The girls now have a green hue to their hair.

Brett and Amy came up for a visit. This is Brett showing Madison how to perfect her cart wheels.

Not having a digital camera for a while prevented us from capturing many other activities. Just to name a few:

~Madison mastering her bike with no training wheels and the hula hoop.

~Many pool and beach days weekly

~My ever growing belly!!!

Fourth of July "Gap Fire"!

The past few days here have been CRAZY! On my way home from work last Tuesday I noticed right above our house in the foothills a fire had started. Little did I know how MASSIVE it would soon turn out to be. We live about one block away from mandatory evacuations and were VERY concerned if we too should follow those orders. We have amazing firefighters who have been working non-stop since last Tuesday night, July 1st and so far it is about 24% contained. Luckily it has moved far enough away where it is no longer a threat to our city. I can finally put away all of our belongings that we packed up in our car. Joe of course packed up all of his electronic stuff and made sure it was safe while our wedding pictures were still in the garage. He reassures me that if we did have to evacuate he would have grabbed the pictures from the garage on our way out!
This picture of our home was taken around 5 p.m. on Thursday, July 3rd! Within hours the smoke that loomed over head quickly turned into an "ash blizzard" and you could barely see the homes across the street due to the heavy smoke, ash, and power outage. It felt like a scene from a movie! We had three straight nights without power in 80-90 degree weather. Let me tell you how miserable that is especially when you are pregnant!
These two pictures of the flames were taken from our driveway!

We didn't let the fire ruin our Fourth of July though! We headed to my brother's pool and enjoyed the holiday smoke and ash free followed by an amazing BBQ and fireworks!

I am extremely grateful for our ward having harped on having your 3 month food supply ready! Because of this we didn't worry about our food in the fridge spoiling and all of our emergency supplies like: flashlights, batteries, candles, etc were handy and very accessible!

Madison's Preschool Graduation

Last night Madison had her Preschool Graduation. We have loved sending Madison to Good Shepard and are ecstatic that Ashley can now attend. Every time I would drop Madison off at school she would run to her friends yelling, "Bye Mommy!" It was too cute!
This is Madison's cute Preschool class! Ashley quickly jumped into the picture too!
This is Jeanene, Madison's teacher! Madison just loves her and she will be truly missed. Hopefully Ashley can have her as a teacher when she is five.

I know its just a Preschool Graduation, but it was really fun to have my parents come out and support Madison. They even gave her a graduation present. I didn't even do that!!!