Conference weekend

 My sister Angie, her husband Evan and their adorable 6-month-old baby Aubrey came to visit October 6-7 from Houston to stay the weekend with us. We were so excited to have them visit and to watch the LDS General Conference Broadcast in the comfort of our own home. It's a chance to hear from our prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, and many other church leaders as they provide counsel, teachings, encouragement, and loving words spoken with the spirit of the Lord. It always gives me the inspiration to be a better mother, daughter, wife, sister and servant in my community.

 Since the kids are a little older, they were able to sit quietly through the majority of the speakers, and I hope they also felt the importance of listening to the prophet and centering our lives around Jesus Christ.

We loved having Angie and her cute little family in our home. My kids love their Aunt Angie and Uncle Evan and spent time playing with them, sitting on their laps and showing them around our house. The cold and windy weather that weekend made it feel just like fall, and the kids loved playing with Evan and Angie outside in the backyard. They also loved playing with Aubrey and her toys on the floor since she was rolling around. Aubrey was also fascinated with watching them as well. My sister even made us yummy freezer meals that we can eat when our baby is born. It was so nice of her to think of us and also bring some cute onesies for the baby. 

 They had to drive back to Houston on Sunday afternoon after lunch to get home in time for Aubrey's bed time, and we were sad to see them leave so soon. But we were so glad they made the effort to come and visit us.

That night Logan and Leah decided to bake a chocolate cake together, and she loved every minute working with her dad. She even read the recipe to him and got all the ingredients out. I love that he takes the time to do such special things together with them in the kitchen. The cake turned out delicious and didn't stay on our counter much longer that week. 

Three weeks before baby #3

Wow, it's a blog post. It's been about a year since the last one. I post so much on Facebook that I really didn't feel the need to blog as well. But here we are. I thought I would write a little about what it's been like to be pregnant with my third child, mainly for my own record and posterity.

When we moved to Texas for Logan to start school, I knew I wanted to add another child to our family. Logan had been a little hesitant in the past because we weren't sure of what our future would be with his job and going back to school. So when things settled down eventually, we decided that it was time to try again.

I knew I was pregnant in February but we didn't really say much to our families for a little while. We actually waited until my parents came down to Austin for a visit to tell them and to tell our kids in person. I think I was 3 or 4 months pregnant already. They were all so excited! The kids' reaction was great because they started looking at me different and rubbing my belly. Leah was especially excited because she had been wanting another baby in our family for the last year or so. 

I felt the usual tiredness and sick to my stomach feeling in the first trimester but I am lucky enough not to throw up or feel too awful. We found out we were having a baby boy at the end of June and got to tell the news to Logan's family while we visited them in Utah in July.

Cameron was so happy to find out it was a boy, and Leah was a good sport about it even though she wanted a sister. I know they will both be great older siblings and helpers when he is born.

The worst part of the pregnancy was making it through the incredibly hot days of the summer. The only thing that made it bearable was going swimming with friends each week and staying inside the house on most days.







Overall I've been blessed to have a healthy pregnancy, and on most days I have the energy to get most everything done that I need to. I feel bigger with this pregnancy than the last two, but at least I'm still strong enough to cook, clean and take care of the kids.

 It is harder to get down and play with the kids on the floor or wrestle like we used to. But I'm sure I will have plenty of time for that later. The best part is just talking with the kids about having another baby, and they love to tell all their friends and neighbors about it. Leah loves to ask me questions and feel the baby's movements. She will be a wonderful mother some day. She has been practicing taking care of her baby doll and stuffed animals for a long time.

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars

(sorry no picture) I just made the most amazing dessert recipe you'll ever taste. A friend from church made these for us a couple of weeks ago, and I had to get the recipe and made them for ourselves. Just combine, caramel apple struedel with cheesecake and you'll get the picture. It's so good, you'll want to go for seconds. You will think you've died and gone to heaven. Here is the link to the website I used: Kuki's Kookbook.

I've also tried some other recipes from this blog so check them out.

From the last 2 months

More pics of the Leah's birthday (2 months ago)

The cake looks like a big pink mound because I tried to make one of those Barbie cakes that I've seen all over the Internet. But for some reason it took forever to cook through and wasn't tall enough for her Barbie and I ran out of time to make the other layers. But as you can see she was still happy with the pink and purple frosting. It tasted good, just didn't look very good.

She also loved hanging out with her cousins close to her age, and some good friends (from our Chicago days) came down to celebrate with her. She had fun playing with their cute girls.



Cameron playing outside at McDonald's playground while Leah was at preschool. He loved having my entire attention focused on him.

































Logan needed me to take a photo of him for school so here he is posing on our front lawn before school. He has been a busy PhD student so far reading lots of research material for future projects. He has enjoyed it so far but says it's harder to stay individually focused and motivated when you're on your own and there is no boss expecting things from you.






No pictures of me but some desserts that I've made in the last few weeks - some for church activities and some just for my family.

Leah and her workbook

I know I promised more pics of the kids, but I have to put this video on here before I forget. Leah got a great workbook (the series of workbooks is called Explode the Code, she is on Level 1) from a friend at church whose son is in Kindergarten and works in this book too. Leah is doing so well and learning how to sound out words and recognize them.