Mercury vrs. Pluto

This was too funny not to post.

Tonight at dinner Jackson was telling me how much he loved me. (Sigh.)

Jackson: "Mom, I love you so much. From here to earth to Pluto to earth to Pluto to earth, back to Pluto. . . . " You get the idea. He said it at least 15 times. And totally aware that Pluto is the farthest from earth. Yes, I know Pluto is no longer a planet.

Mom: "I love you that much too. But maybe even more."

Jackson: all smiles

Noah: "You know how much I love you mom?"

Mom: "How much?"

Noah: "From here to the cookie, to my plate to my drink and to Mercury and back"

Jackson: "Uhhh, like Mercury is the closest planet to earth. Why does he only love you that much?"

Mom: (holding in all my laughter but not very well) "Well, he loves me all around the dinner table too."

I thought it was so funny how Jackson would call Noah out on the distance from earth to all the planets. Jackson has become pretty smart when it comes to outer space. He has learned all the planets and their line up according to earth. No thanks to me I assure you. I am pretty certain he learned it from his Leapster game Wall-E. Thanks Disney.

Another 3 year old for me!

October 5th was Noah's 3rd birthday and we had a great time. It happened to fall on Sunday so we had a simple little celebration with just our family. The Miracle's happened to stop by and join in the song and cake. All day Noah felt like the king of the world. And we let him. It was his day.

Then the following Wednesday we had the full blown party. And I loved it every bit as much as the kids. We did it total Halloween style and I even decided to embrace the "cool mom" and dress up. Oh yeah, a witch. How appropriate right? For the ward party I am going to try add a wart to my nose. But the night of the party my time was running out and I barely had time to spray my hair purple.

All the kids dressed up in their Halloween costumes, or whatever their mom's could pull together and we had a spooky party. Even my yard turned a little white trash with all the decor. Please see "cool mom" above.

We played Pin the Eye on the Jack-O-Lantern, Spooky Halloween Twister and decorated Halloween sugar cookies. I decided to do a cupcake tree instead of a cake since I made a birthday cake for Noah on his actual day. And it was so easy and fun. Spider webs. So easy.

So, to my crazy little 3 year old. . . I love you more than you will ever know. Even on the days when I want to pull all my hair out and go to a hotel all by myself (or just the bathroom would be nice), I wouldn't trade it for the world. You make me laugh harder than any other child I have ever known. You can also make me a bit nuts. :) But that is what we love!!!! You always know how to make me smile. I love you little Noah. Every single thing about you!! I am so proud to be your mommy.

And the news is. . . .

Well, I guess it is time to officially announce something that most of you already know. And for those of you that I haven't told yet, it is purely out of laziness and being severely over occupied.

Today I had my ultra sound and we got to see the little baby in motion for about one hour. There was a tiny little calcium deposit on one of the babies heart muscles, but not to worry. The Dr. came in to take a look at it and said that it is totally fine and not to stress about. But of course, I will be googling it later.

The baby looks great. Everything is where it should be and working how it should be. What a relief. Last night I didn't feel the baby move and it started to stress me a little. I got up to go to the bathroom around 1:30am and laid awake until 2:45 praying a worrying that the baby would move and everything would be fine. It was a serious concern for all you that think I am a little worry wart. (Jason included. He had the nerve to even tell me that I probably wasn't really awake all that time).

So, when the tech asked me if we wanted to know the gender of the baby, I got very excited. But I told her to wait a little. I wasn't quite ready for the anticipation to be over quite yet. And then I was ready.

It's a boy!!!! And we couldn't be happier. Really, at this number of child, I am thankful for either. If Ellie never was born and this was my 4th boy, yes. . . I would be so sad. But now that I have each, I am set. So, boy it is. I am very happy and excited to start all over with boy things. My sister Jocelyn just had her first children. Get it? Twins. :) And she had little boys so I gave her all I had. Jason is worried. But I am ready to go shopping. :) As a side note. If I do decide to have a 5th child, it better be a girl. Ellie needs a sister and someone to fight about scrunchies with. Didn't we all hate it if our sister touched our scrunchies?!! :)

So, congrats to me! :)

Boston and Vermont

Boston. . .

We have been back for almost a week now, but I just figured out how to do that grid thing so it has taken me awhile to post this. Our trip to Boston and Vermont was great. In short, here is what we did.

Marriott Residence Inn. We got into Boston around 11pm. I went to pull the sofa bed out and found no mattress. One little call from your truly and off we went to the PENT HOUSE. Hello two story hotel room. That was wonderful. We love the Residence Inn because it is like staying in a house. Especially when it is bigger than our actual house. :) And the yummy breakfast each morning. Mmmmm.

Whale watching. This was AMAZING. Whales were 20 feet away from our boat and it was so close you could see the white under belly. Loved it. Luckily the weather was prefect this day. Breezy and cool, but nice. By far one of my favorite days of the trip.

Freedom Trail. I loved this. Paul Revere's home was pretty neat to see. The boys were B.O.R.E.D. to say the least.

Trolley tour. It was POURING rain so this was really our only option. Too bad the vinyl windows were covered in steam so we saw very little. And to be honest, I really didn't care. :) I just wanted to sit and be dry. We were dripping with water. Ellie was out of control at one point so we decided to get off. In the rain. With no appropriate gear. Drenched. And in the theater distract too. Bor-ing. And when we went to board the next trolley, there weren't 5 seats available. So we waited another 25 minutes in the rain. So fun.

Quincy Market. YUM-O is all I have to say. I could have spent several hours in there. Me and food. . . together at last.Ben and Jerry's was tons of fun. Our tour guide was a little strange, but made us laugh. Did you know how unsuccessful Ben and Jerry were destined to be? And who doesn't love some free samples of yummy ice cream? The boys loved it there. For obvious reasons.

Salem. The scary witches. We had a fun time there. And that is a really cute little town. We even found a bit of Mormon history there. But I don't remember what. I know, I was really fascinated by it.

The boys bought swords that make "clanging" sounds when they move. Like metal on metal. And they are the WORST swords EVER! They went off NON-STOP the whole drive home. I ended up shoving and wedging them in the back of the van under all our luggage, hoping they would break. But no. They win the award for the world's most durable toy. SERENITY NOW!

Vermont. . .

I loved every bit of it. We spent 3 nights there in a beautiful resort town called Stowe. Check it out if you are ever heading to Vermont. It was prettier than I ever imagined. And we hit it at a perfect time. The trees were all rich with color and the weather was so fall like. It was everything I was wanting it to be.

We rode the Gondola to the tallest peak there and although there were too many clouds to see the bottom, the ride up was breathtaking. We were all a bit freezing once we hit the top. :)

Each day we ate at different local restaurants and each day we ate a ton. The food was so delish!

We stayed at the Green Mountain Inn and it was perfect. Jason took the kids all swimming in the "nicely heated" pool and they loved it. Especially Ellie.

We spent a lot of time driving up mountains and getting out to take scenic pictures. Something I actually think is lame unless you are a good photographer. But it was just too gorgeous not to capture. Unfortunately, I am no photographer so the pictures will never do ti justice. And I stand firm on believing there should be people in pictures. (Unless you are skilled like I mentioned earlier).

We also drove to Burlington, Lake Champlain and spent a few hours walking and shopping on Church Street. Very fun. And apparently we ate the world's best chicken fingers. Coated it Kellogg's and almonds. I had mine in a wrap with sweet potato fries and get this. . . horseradish honey mustard dip!! It was heaven. I think I need to use "the Google" to find the recipe. (Did anyone get that?)

Then we drove half way back home and stayed in New York for the night. Panera in the hotel room. And a little bit of Gossip Girl for me while the boys went out to get dinner. (Stop judging me. I am not perfect).

It was one of the best family vacations we have taken. We loved every bit of it. And I highly recommend taking the time to go to Vermont in the fall. There really is nothing like it.

I had to add some extra pics that are already in the grid but for some reason heads are cut off. I guess I didn't really learn how to do it all that well after all. :)