Rainy Christmas

Well we finally got some good rain around here. Too bad it is was all during Christmas week. We were so grateful for it that we didn't really care. We just took it as an opportunity to bundle up and bee lazy. My parents came down for Christmas weekend and even with my mom's horrible back pain we had a good time. We played cards and took the kids to see The Muppet Movie. We baked and watched movies and chit chatted. The kids were so glad to see Grandma and Grandpa and were sad to see them go so soon. THe kids had a great Christmas. It started with Christmas Eve pajamas from Nona and Grandad. This year thankfully did not end with tears when they realized they were pajamas. They loved the transformers pajamas and all wanted to put them on immediately. Christmas morning we woke up bright and early, a little too early for me, and the kids had a blast opening everything. Top gifts from Santa were the Lightning McQueen computer for Caleb, Lego sets for Benjamin, and a pop up tent for Joshua. The winner of the gifts from family members has to go to Nona and Grandad for the Thundercats swords. But everything has been loved and played with.

After Christmas we had an entire week off with Chris. Pam drove down and spent a few days with us. I put her to work sewing Baby Girl's blessing gown, which turned out amazing and better than I could have hoped for. I can't wait to see her in it.

Pam went home Saturday morning and we headed to Sea World for their New Year's Eve fireworks. It was totally worth the trip. The weather was perfect, the crowd was small, and the fireworks were amazing. We got home super late, but still managed to get up for our first week of 9 O'clock church.

A week later we celebrated Joshua's third birthday. I will post a seperate post for that. Since then it has been just waiting for baby. Chris finished his Psych rotation and is starting Family Practice this week. We had to move up the baby's due date due to liver problems. Thankful Pam came down this weekend and helped me get everything organized and ready to go. The ladies at church threw me a wonderful baby shower and I think we may be set for a little while. I am so grateful for all the amazing friends I have made here in this ward and all the wonderful things they are willing to do to help others. Ok so I will explain the liver problem now so no one is freaking out. My due date was originally February 23, but since I have Gestational Diabetes we had planned the C-section for Feb 16ish. Well last week I started having some severe itching all over my body. Now I always get a little itchy, like every pregnant woman, around my belly and such from growing, but tis was my arms, legs, feet, and hands. So I called the doctor and asked if this was normal and was there something I could take. She said this was not normal and I need to come straight in and get blood drawn to check my liver. I was diagnosed with Cholestasis which is complication due to pregnancy hormones. Basically my gall bladder is not letting the bile leave my liver and it can back up into my blood stream. Now this sounds really scary, but it really isn't that bad as long as it is caught and we delivery the baby at 37 weeks. It is after about 37 weeks that things can start getting bad. Luckily most babies are ready to go at 37 weeks and the worst that could happen is underdeveloped lungs, which only means a short stay in the NICU. The risks of keeping her in longer would be much greater for me and her. So needless to say my delivery day was moved to February 3ish at the latest. Now on top of the Cholestasis, the doctor thinks that the pill I was taking for the diabetes was causing my liver to be in a danger a little more, so she took me off of that and I go in Tuesday the 24th to see if my levels are better. If not then Baby will be her Wednesday the 25th. Again it isn't as scary as it seems. The baby and I are both looking great every where else. My blood pressure is great and my other levels are awesome. She is breathing really well and active and has a perfect heart rate, so we should be just fine even at 36 weeks along. I had a very comforting blessing from Chris and we are ready to go whenever it happens. I will try to get some blog posts in as soon as she is here and let everyone meet our sweet little girl. Till then keep us in your prayers and vote for Ron Paul!

Joshy Posh Turns 3

I cannot believe my baby is 3. We had strawberry cake per his request and had friends over for pizza. He got a new block table where he spends most of his day building, a game, a new tent since the Christmas one had already been destroyed, and a one dollar bill in the mail from his great grandma. He loves that dollar and goes to my drawer every day to make sure it is still there. He is such an amazing kid.

I cannot get enough of his crazy antics, most the time. Joshua loves to ask questions, sometimes the same one over and over and over. His most common one is, "What's that noise?" Which sometimes can be kind of a difficult one to answer, especially if we are at a park or somewhere noisy. He won't give up till you figure out which noise exactly he is asking about. He loves to play with his brothers. He is very smart and already tries to debate with the older two. Him and Caleb will get into arguments over the craziest things. The other day they were arguing over whether the plastic shape they were playing with was a square or a diamond. I got a good laugh over it later but during the argument neither would accept that it could possibly be both a diamond and a square. He loves to be independent. He wants to do things him self. Sometimes this is a good thing because he can dress himself and buckle his seat belt, but sometimes we have tears when mommy is in a hurry and can't wait for him to figure out his buttons or snaps. Overall, he is a pretty happy easy going kid. He isn't much of a cuddle bug, but when he is tired he will go get his rainbow blanket and snuggle up to me. He still loves to hold my hand though and I take every chance I can. He sings all kinds of songs now and even likes to make up his own words. Him and Caleb made up two new verses for "The Wheels on the Bus". They went a little like this, "the daddies on the bus go fart fart fart" and "the mommies on the bus go eww eww eww!" Sounds about right to me. Joshua is getting really interested in the baby and is trying to figure out what exactly is going on. He constantly asks if the baby is sleeping or awake. He asks if the baby is here yet and when I say no he asks when is she going to be here. He likes to rock her toys in her bassinet and pretend they are sleeping. Joshua is a good eater and has caught up to Caleb in size and weight. Everyone asks if they are twins. I sure am glad they aren't but I can't get annoyed cause I get them confused from the back. He is easy to make laugh and giggle as long as it isn't early in the morning, then he takes after his mom and can be quite the cranky pants. We love our little Joshy Posh and are so happy that he surprised us and came into our lives when we were least expecting him. I hope he keeps surprising me for many many years to come

Let's see since July, we have been moving right along. I was extremely hot and sick and miserable till about the end of August. Chris finished up his Imed rotation and started on Surgery. All in all 3rd year has been a piece of cake. Surgery was probably the hardest, but just because 4 O'clock in the morning did not suit my sleeping habits. As usual Chris can keep going on little to no sleep, but I have a harder time with it. I would get woken up with him at 4 and then be just dosing off when I would have to get Benny up. Then just crawling back in bed when the Littles would wake up. Tough Life I know. Ha. Overall though I think we handled it like a pro. Chris did great on both rotations and got really good marks and excellent letters of recommendation lined up. I think it would have been easier if I hadn't been pregnant. The kids did great and all thought they are all going through different adolescent attitude changes, I survived somehow. Chris is in his Physic rotation right now and the 8-5 is awesome. Don't get me wrong I had plenty of crazy days and crying and stress, but nothing compared to what I was expecting. They say Imed and surgery are the hardest. Well in that case, it should be smooth sailing from here on out, LOL, till 4th year. Chris's top choice as of now is Anesthesiology and ER is coming in second. We shall see. At the end, of September we found out that we are having a baby Girl. I had really mixed emotions about this. I mean girls are great and I have always wanted to have both, but I sure do love my boys and would have totally welcomed another little man to our family. It will be a lot of fun to figure out how to raise a girl though, and now I won't get left out of all the fun bow and tutu making parties, my friends have, LOL. She will definitely be spoiled. All my boys seem to think that girls are soft ad delicate. I am not sure how much of a chance she has of that, but hopefully she will be treated as sweetly as they treat me. Benjamin started first grade and is getting much better at his reading and writing. He still hates it and I have to struggle every day to get him to do his homework, but it is much better. He loves math and science and thinks his teacher Mr. G is smarter than daddy and has a better Ho Ho Ho. I am not sure about the smarter part, but he does have a bigger bowl full of jelly for being Santa. He still loves super heroes and is getting into Legos. He still loves to snuggle and give me hugs and loves to talk to the baby and give her hugs too. Caleb started pre-school and made it a whole month and a half before dropping out, LOL. It was a public Pre-k and was half day everyday. The main reason we took him out was finances, but he had started complaining and not wanting to go and since I don't think pre-school is important I didn't care too much when it worked out better. I have loved having him here to play with Joshua. I will miss him next year when he starts Kindergarten. But I still miss Benny everyday, so that is just normal for me. Joshua is growing like a weed and is 3 weeks from turning 3. I will just post a little on him since he will have a birthday post in a little bit. HE IS POTTY TRAINED! My earliest one to get potty trained and y most stubborn one. The only method that worked, was letting him go naked for a couple of weeks. He loves to ask questions, tons and tons of questions. I have to say I am probably not as patient as I could be with his curiosity, but I try to answer as many as possible, before I cut him off. Halloween was fun. Benjamin went as a Ninja, Caleb as Robin, and Joshua as Superman. I tried my hardest to get him to go as batman, but he wouldn't have it. In Benjamin's words, I went as a big fat Jack-O-Lantern, and Chris went as the Most Interesting Man in the World, from the Dos Equis commercials. I did actually get into the Halloween spirit a few ties and we made mummy pizzas, and spider cookies, but other than that I wasn't in my usual Halloween crazed mood. I blame it on the pregnancy, which is what I blame everything on.

We spent a nice peaceful thanksgiving right here and just enjoyed getting Chris all to ourselves for a week. We had steak and baked potato and fried pies and watched lots of movies. We played at the park and road bikes and slept in and went to bed late. I think it was probably my most favorite Thanksgiving ever. Then we decorated for Christmas and have been moving right along. I now have about 9 weeks till baby girl gets here and am getting nervous, due to the lack of pink in our house, but I guess it won't hurt her to wear some blue, LOL. I have been able to work out this whole pregnancy and kept my weight gain down to a minimum, but still have to deal with Gestational diabetes. Oh well its not like the diet isn't good for me. I am glad it is almost over though and can tell that I am not cut out for more than one more pregnancy after this one. I am feeling my age. How the Duggars do it I don't know, but I don't want to find out. Well, I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and remembers the reason we celebrate. Christ should always be the center of our lives, but especially this time of year let's remember to celebrate his life ad everything that we have been blessed with because of his great sacrifice. I have a testimony that he lives and loves each and every one of us. I know that we can return to our Heavenly Father through him. Merry Christmas!

A little on Joshua at 2 and a 1/2

Joshua is the such a good boy. I couldn't ask for a better 2 year old. Needless to say he is my most stubborn. He is super grumpy if you wake him up to early (gets that from me I am afraid). But all in all he is a pretty good sport. He is easy going and can go a whole day of running errands with out a tantrum.

Joshua can fall asleep anywhere. I find this rather interesting since the first 10 months of his life he couldn't. He gave me crap if I tried to put him to bed anywhere except his crib. Now he will pass out under the church pew, in the grocery cart, on a roller coaster, or anywhere he may be when he is ready for a nap. He is generally a good sport about naps too, and if I tell him to go get his rainbow blanket, he says, "okay" and heads for his bed.

Joshua is learning all kinds of thing to say. He has been talking for quite a while, but the last 6 months or so he has started saying pretty much everything. He does have a cute little speech impediment right now. Most stuff he will add a bl in front of. My favorite things he says like that are "blamma" for grandma, "blandad" for grandad, and "Blebus Blist" for Jesus Christ, when he prays. He adds the "bl" for lots of foods and stuff too, and I find my self teasing him sometimes. He will say, "Can I have some blocolate milk?" And when I say blocolate milk back, he will get all mad and correct me, "no blocolate milk". So he knows how it is supposed to be said he just can't quite get it. I love it though and although naturally I want him to learn how to speak properly, I will miss this phase.

I also find, that he copies a lot of stuff Caleb says. The other day sitting at the table, he just busts out with, "What the Helmet". He loves to tell me "NO WAY" or if he wants something he'll say, "tan we, tan we, tan we", for can we. And of course he loves to give kisses and play the I love you more game.

Joshua has the greatest belly laugh and loves to be tickled. He will always come back for more. He loves to sing along with Caleb at the top of his lungs and sometimes they get into a who can sing the loudest competition. Most the time those two get along pretty well, but they can get in some pretty mean fights too. Usually both end up running to me in tears trying to tell me their side first, which I of course can't understand a word of till they calm down.

I love that Joshua just fits right in with our crazy family. He is all boy and keeps up just fine with his older siblings. He does have a hard time playing alone, but after awhile he will go on his own and play. He would be happy staying out doors all day if he could.

What a fun kid we have. He makes us laugh and smile almost everyday. I can't wait to see how he reacts to the new baby when it gets here. It will either be a total disaster or he will take right to it. Either way, having a new baby will be an adjustment for all of us, since Joshua has been all of us's baby for so long.

Caleb's Turn

Caleb Atticus Lee turned 4 this summer! I can not believe he is 4 already. He wanted an ironman birthday. I bought Iron man plates and napkins and goody bags. Then I started feeling awful that week and totally weinered out on the cake. I tried to find an Iron man one at the local bakery, but all they had was Spiderman.
Lucky at 4 you still don't care and he was just as excited about it. I on the other hand felt awful about it. This was the first store bought cake I have ever bought for one of my boys birthday's and I felt I had let him down. Oh well, i will just have to make his 5th birthday cake even cooler.


I absolutely can't get enough of my Caleb. He has the sweetest little high pitched voice. His giant blue eyes and big ears give him his nickname "Dobby". Right now he loves being called Dobby and tells everyone his nickname. We will see how he feels as he gets older and realizes why he is called that. LOL! For the longest time that is all Joshua would call him, cause he couldn't say Caleb.

Caleb is a tiny little guy and his younger brother is quickly passing him up. I think he must take after my side of the family.


He loves to cuddle and snuggle. He tells me he loves me and I am his favorite or his best friend atleast 3 times a day (mostly when he is tired). Caleb loves to ride his bike and was riding circles around Benny while Benny was still a little scared. He loves to play and climb and scare me to death. Caleb is a little dare devil and I pray for his safety more than the other boys.

Caleb has a smile that can light up a room and he loves to sing all kinds of music. His favorite song right now is "Sister Christian". BUt he also sings "I am A Child of God" and "We will Rock You".

He makes a great younger borther, cause he is very independent and can play for hours on his own. He can go from smiles to giant ears in about a half a second, but those are the only two moods he has, so he is easy to read. Happy or Mad.

We love Caleb every one of us, and don't know what we would do with out his bright personality.




Before Caleb's birthday we celebrated the 4th of July. We had a ward pancake breakfast and a bike parade. Benny was so excired and really wanted to go and ride his bike, all though at this point he was still terrified to ride it a pace faster than a snail. Well Chris had to work and I debated and debated with myself whether I should go or not with out Chris. I was still feeling pretty rotten and it was already over ninety at 8 o'clock in the morning.

I decided to not disappoint Benny. Bad Decision!

I loaded up the van and we got there in plenty of time to find a table. Pancakes were served and after 3 drops on the floor and 2 orange juice spills we were able to make it back to the table. Within 5 minutes of sitting down 2 kids were already crying . Benny cause I hadn't gotten him as much cantaloupe as Caleb and Joshua because I cut his pancake, although he specifically said to cut it. AHH! we made it through breakfast and went to decorate our bikes. That went over ok, but when it was time to ride Benjamin freaked out of course and had to have one of the YW walk along with him way behind everyone else. Caleb took off like a maniac and crashed into a little girl traumatizing her for life and Joshua trailed behind mad because I didn't bring his bike (he doesn't have a bike). I was sweating like a stuck pig and on the verge of tears and nauseated.

Conclusion: I will never go to another activity with out my husband till my children are old enough to carry their own food. I will also feed my family before an activity. Box pancake mix and bananas is not worth the effort.

Chris asked, "weren't there any other mom's there without husbands you could have sat with for help?"
I thought about it, and no. Out of an entire ward of Residents and students, there was not one other wife there with out her husband.

Maybe she was just smart enough not to come!

AHHH! I am so behind!

I have so many posts to catch up on. First, off I will cover the future Lee baby. I am about 15 weeks along now and feeling much better. This pregnancy has been really hard on me. I don't know if it was the summer heat or the fact that I am getting older, but I had a rough 3 months. I was nauseated, dizzy and just plain tired all the time.

I haven't made it to the doctor yet due to my crazy summer, but I have an appointment on Monday and hope to get a little better estimate of my due date and how far along I am. Right now I am thinking mid February- first of March.

We are all excited, but Benny is really excited. He prays every night that the baby will be a girl. He says he already has brothers and he really needs a sister. I have started adding a P.S. to my prayers that it is a boy, just to razz him a little bit. Benny says God will answer his prayer over mine. Guess we shall see in a few weeks, LOL. Chris keeps praying for the baby to have super powers. I really don't have a preference. A boy would fit right in with our crew and would be cheaper, but a girl would be a fun adventure too. I just want a healthy baby.

Now, on to Benny's 6th Birthday Party. I can't believe he is six years old. We had a few friends over and made a Justice League cake. Chris did a great job on the super hero emblems. I think Benny had a fun time and got some fun summer toys to enjoy.





A little about Benny at six. Benny lost two teeth this summer and has really made great progress trying things he is scared of. At the beginning of the summer we could barely get him on his bike, but now he can ride really fast and loves to go on walks with us. He has also learned how to swim in the deep end and can swim from one side of the pool to the other.

He is such a little helper. He will help me with any of my chores (as long as I try to mix it up with new things on a regular basis. Benny loves to help out with Joshua. Mostly he likes to help him get dressed and put his shoes on. He hates cleaning his room, but loves messing it up.

He has finally started caring about the things he wears. For some reason he has an aversion to shorts. This actually started back when he was about 4 and has carried on. Jeans are pretty much the only thing I can get him to wear, even in this 100+ weather.

He has figured out the difference between girl and boy shows and tries to act like he doesn't want to watch Care Bears or Tangled, but whenever we have a girl friend over he sure is glued to the screen LOL.

I absolutely love My Benny. He is so sweet and gentle. He is sensitive and caring. He has his little quirks like any kid, but overall he is a great big brother. I know that God knew what he as doing when he sent Benny to us first. He is super smart and teaches me new things every day. He hates to write, but loves science and can memorize pretty much anything he learns about bugs and things. He has a hard time reading, but is slowly getting better. I know that our family wouldn't be the same without him. I definitely would be a lot more stressed out with out my little helper around.

3 Easter Baskets, 2 t-ballers, 1 Birthday and a Graduation

Okay this is one mega post so I will do little typing and lots of pictures.
First we had a fun Easter just hanging out here at home.







The weekend after easter we celebrated Chris's 30th Birthday and had a half way done party. Chris is officially a 3rd year now and we are so proud of him. He has worked so hard to get where he is and he deserved a bigger party, but our budget was tight. We still had fun hanging out with all our wonderful friends that we have met along the way.






Soon after that Benjamin started playing T-ball for the Temple Rangers




and Caleb started Pre T with the Temple Red Sox
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They look so grown up in their uniforms.

We also now have a First grader in our house.
Benjamin graduated from Kindergarten on thursday. We are so proud of him.



He loves school and is going miss his teacher Mrs. Rhoades. She was a perfect fit for Benny and really worked hard to make it fun.

We are excited about our summer break though and have lots of fun stuff planned so I will keep you updated.