Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Catch Up

Not sure how this post is going to go. I think I'll just write several random paragraphs of what we've been up to lately. Hopefully it will all make sense.
First and most important, we are expecting baby #4. It's a girl!! I'm still not 100% convinced I'm having another girl. I always thought Clarissa was our little gift from heaven (specially since she was a surprise and the other 3 pregnancies have been planned). I guess I will completely believe it when she is born and I see girl parts, not boy parts. :) Baby girl is due May 11th, 2015. Clarissa is ecstatic she's having a baby sister.
I've been volunteering at the boys' school a lot lately. I go in every other week for a few hours. It's fun to be in the classroom again. It makes me miss (just a little) my teacher days. I'm not sure it's a good thing for Christopher though. I feel like he always gets a little out of control and thinks he doesn't need to follow the rules when I'm there. Last week I accompanied his class to a field trip. We watched Junie B. Jones in theater. The kids had a great time, it was a really good play!
 
In the bus going on the field trip. He was just "a little" excited!
Halloween this year was very last minute. I caved and bought the boys new costumes the day before Halloween. I purchased Clarissa's Dorothy dress that week and it arrived in the mail the night before she needed to use it for preschool. They sent me the wrong size, so she was sporting a size 1-2 dress when I had ordered a 4-6. Good thing I could at least get it on her. Cory's scare crow costume turned out great, and I wax supposed to be the Wicked Witch of the West. My make up wasn't as green as I had hoped and I had to wear Clarissa's witch hat from 2 years ago (again we were stuck wearing a size 2 costume). I bought a witch hat last year, and it's somewhere hiding in the garage.


 Christopher got invited to a Halloween party from a kid in his class, so I invited Drew's primary class for a last minute Halloween play date. He had a blast!




 Clarissa and her super short dress.

I took Christopher in to get tested for his allergies a couple of weeks ago. He's been having a hard time with seasonal (more like year round) allergies for about a year and I can't seem to get it under control. Lately he's also been showing more allergy symptoms when around dogs, so I decided to have have it all checked out. The poor kid is allergic to just about everything outdoors: grass, weeds, several tree pollens, cats, dogs, feathers... The doctor prescribed be a stronger allergy medicine and has strongly encouraged us to consider allergy shots. For now we are trying the meds. Not sure he's ready for weekly shots for a whole year!

His allergic reactions during the test.
Lastly, Clarissa got her ears' pierced. I went to the mall to buy shoes for me and had a spur of the moment where we walked in to Claire's and decided to pierce her ears. She loves it and thinks she's a real princess now. Cory had no clue at the time, he was at work, but thankfully he wasn't too upset. 

Phoenix Temple

I can't believe it's been two months since my last post. Life's been busy around here and there's lots to catch up. The post I'll just focus on our newly dedicated Phoenix temple, then I'll do another post later to catch up on life.
The Phoenix temple was dedicated a little under 2 weeks ago. It's only 15 minutes from a house and we've been able to be a part of serving in the open house and youth cultural celebration. It's been an amazing experience for our family, youth and ward. I love having a temple so close to my house now. It's a dream come true and really makes it hard for me to want to move to a house that's further away from the temple.
I've been able to attend the youth practices for the cultural celebration that took place the day before the celebration. It was a special opportunity that I'll treasure. On one of our last practices, after many frustrations, long hours, and hard work, I was overwhelmed with spirit and had a hard time holding back the tears as the youth began their dance. It has been a blessing to be able to watch our young women and men work hard weekly and try their best. We've really been blessed with a spectacular group of kids, that in my opinion, were some of the best prepared dancers out there!
Last weekend Cory and I got to serve in the temple for the first time. We did sealings and then went out for dinner. We just kept commenting on how exciting it was to go to the temple and then out for dinner and be back in a little over 3 hours. Before it would take us 3 hrs just to travel to and from the temple and do sealings. It truly is a blessing to live so close to a house of the Lord now!

Don't mind the boys' goofy outfit. It was very hot the day we went to the open house. While at the temple Christopher kept saying "Mom, I don't want to leave, it's so beautiful in here." He loves the temple and talks about how he wants to go there when he grows up.

Cory and I after our first temple and dinner date.