Home Sweet Home

The Big Announcement So yesterday we finally announced (admitted in some cases) that we are expecting baby number four. I have always wanted to try and wait until we find out the sex of the baby before I announced, because it seems like such a downer and boring time announcing you are pregnant and then waiting forever to find out what the sex is. It always seemed like it would be so fun to announce both at the same time. Our plans didn't work out so well due to some fellow pregnant friends spilling news to people they shouldn't have, but the people who we most wanted to keep it from were Brighton and Adaira. They didn't have a clue that I had been pregnant for the last 16 weeks, though I did have to tell them several times "Mommy doesn't feel good, I need to just rest...." or fall asleep right on the couch surrounded by chaos in the middle of the day (which happened VERY often). I even fell asleep once and missed picking up Brighton from the bus stop by by ab...

Dale Dale causes so much trouble and chaos in our home, yet at the same time he is so much fun to watch with all the new little quirks he picks up. He's always pulling off some new expression or silly behavior. It's really entertaining to see the things he picks up from his siblings and the things that are truly uniquely Dale. Brighton has been writing in his journal every night for the past few weeks. We didn't even encourage this, he just started doing it on his own (another reason Brighton is amazing...). Since the lights in his room are off, Brighton will lay down on his belly in his doorway and write in his journal. Dale walked around the corner the other day and saw Brighton's journal and pencil on the floor, so he did a little circle and laid down on his belly and started "writing" in Brighton's journal. None of my other kids have ever had any attachment to their blankets. Dale is attached to BOTH of his blankets and will routinely walk aroun...

Mother's Day I shouldn't have let the time after Mother's Day pass without giving credit to Justin for the wonderful meal he made for me and our parents (and I didn't have to help with any of it! I did help clean the house though). On the menu was: Corn on the cob Rolls from scratch (they turned out excellent) Salad with homemade dressing mimicking Olive Garden dressing (my favorite) Homemade pie (caramel, coconut, pecans & ice cream, yummm) Last but not least, Justin's specialty: smoked meat (ribs, brisket, and kabobs) along with homemade BBQ sauce. Needless to say we were all stuffed! Thank you Justin!

I had originally included this post at the end of my previous post, but excluded it at the last minute because of its sensitive nature. I wanted to check with a member of the Taylor family for appropriateness and was given a green light, so here goes: Many of the readers of this blog know the Taylor family. Brent and Bryan Taylor went to school with Justin and I, and Brent is one of Justin's very best friends. After Justin went on his mission, Brent was one of the lone friends who hadn't left yet (he had a late birthday) and while he waited for his call he and I (and friends) got to hang out for several months and become good friends ourselves. My parents affectionately refer to Brent as "Captain Courageous" due to his ROOK strategies when he played with us as a rookie but took risks like he'd been playing for years (ROOK has been the Ellsworth family game for decades). Brent has always and continues to be someone that Justin and I have so much respect for...

 A Few Things  We took an impromptu hike to Fat Man's Pass (at South Mountain) a few weeks ago. It was after Justin got home from work and by the time we got up there, the hike was a race to finish before sundown since we didn't bring any flashlights. I think round trip the hike was about 3.5 miles and the kids did fantastic!  At the actual "Fat Man's Pass" there are two huge boulders you can barely fit through. One of them is very slippery if you climb up to the top and want to slide down.  The kids had no problem squeezing through...  The next day Grandma Jo had a great Easter egg hunt for the grandkids, and before the hunt she got some well deserved pictures with the kiddos (she has two more grandkids - Jeff & Leza's - but they live in Florida right now).  Dale and his ever-mischievous face...  Thought this was a cute picture with Grandma  On Easter morning the kids found these great surprises from the Easter Bunny! They each got a...

Where has April gone? I've really had very little desire to blog lately, but here's a few updates from April. Justin had his birthday on the 3rd. I talked to him about having a party but I think Justin's ploy is to have very low key stuff for himself so he can make me feel guilty about all the thought he puts into stuff for me. We ended up going on a date for his birthday, and he got a watch and a book called "The Dangerous Book for Boys" from me. I found the book on Amazon and it was highly recommended. Justin hasn't gotten to read much of it, however, because Brighton stole it the same day I gave it to Justin and has been reading it ever since. A day or two later we had a family birthday dinner at his parents house. One of these days Justin is going to have a birthday surprise so big he'll never knew what hit him. Just didn't happen this year... We love you Justin!  Adaira had her birthday on the 5th and is now the BIG 5! We aren't going ...