Something in the works...

For those of you that don't already know, we're expecting our third little Kerrigan June 24th. I am almost 12 weeks, and had an ultrasound yesterday that confirmed that there is a little baby alive and kicking in there. :)

We are very excited, but I have been pretty sick since about week 4. So... that's my excuse if I've been a slacker in blogging and in life. The kids have been doing well with it. They don't seem to mind if I lie on the couch all day, as long as I still feed them. It's been a little more exciting for Jeremy - he was doing all cooking/cleaning/laundry for 4 or 5 weeks there, besides trying to keep up with school, work, and his other obligations. We are doing well though, and I have been feeling a little better lately. I finally scrubbed our bathtub today. Not only had it not happened in a while, but it was also the most exercise I've had in a month, I think! Looking forward to the 2nd trimester. And to Christmas. We are so excited about Christmas around here!

I Love to See the Temple

The kids get so excited when they see the temple, or pictures of the temple. They're always thinking fancy churches are temples, and Reilly asks often if we can go to the temple. Jeremy went down to Nauvoo Thursday after school and got some beautiful night shots of the temple. Jaina was very excited to see them! (She hasn't been to the temple in a while, since she didn't go last month with Jeremy and the other kids) Hopefully we'll get to see a few temples on our drive home for Christmas.

This last week was also our ward Christmas party. It was a lot of fun, and Reilly and Jaina loved running around the cultural hall for hours with all the other kids. They did a little nativity thing, and Reilly was asked to play a shepherd. He was so cute in his costume. He performed well, not counting the nose-picking and trying to escape the head shepherd. We were singing in the choir, so we didn't get many pictures, but at least we could see him. :)

The kiddos got haircuts the other day. Reilly's was getting shaggy and he really needed one, but I had been putting it off, partially because he's so difficult about it. We got it done though. Then I was about to toss them both in the bath anyways, so I decided to trim up Jaina's little mullet. I got carried away (and kept trying to get it even, with her moving all over) and ended up cutting off more than I wanted. :( Before that, I had just wrangled her hair into some "back" pigtails, and they were so cute. (This is no easy feat, with the way her hair grows):

I'm kind of sad I cut it, but it looks a little neater now. You can see the "after" look in this picture, and in the post or two below:

And here's a bonus picture of one of Jaina's better morning hair styles:

I don't remember it, but Jeremy said Reilly definitely had a "terrible two's." I'm beginning to wonder, though, if his "three's" aren't worse in some ways. He is so neat, and is learning so much sometimes (he recently started using the computer, and loves his game!) but then other times he is such a pill! He's freaks out half the time when we tell him "no." Does this ever go away? (this is the face we're seeing a lot around here):

Of course this little almost-2-year-old tease doesn't help. She delights in driving him crazy with her sweet little "no!"s to things he's trying to tell her or get her to do...

For some reason she doesn't bother me quite as much when she's being difficult, because he communicates, understands, and can do so much more! (When he wants to)

Thanksgiving and stuff

We actually had a very nice Thanksgiving. We had it with some close friends who had family in town, and boy was the food amazing! Thanksgiving dinner ended up about 2 hours later than planned, because they were trying to get everything done, but it was worth the wait! Everything was super tasty. I still missed the pit-roasted turkey from home, but it was a very nice afternoon.
Thanksgiving morning was pretty fun, too. Jeremy went and played football in the freezing cold mud with a bunch of other crazy guys. This is what he looked like when he got back:
The kids and I watched the Macy's Day parade while I folded a bunch of neglected laundry all morning. Not exciting, but nice. :) We enjoyed just hanging out much of the day, and the kids loved having Daddy home all day.
The next morning, we finished decorating our Christmas tree. Definitely a big hit. The bottom tier of ornaments are still being constantly rearranged and played with. Both kids were so excited about every step of putting the tree up, and Jaina still points to it excitedly and says "Christmas!" This picture is from that night. It took me a couple days to finish all the popcorn garland Jeremy decided we needed this year, so it looks a little nicer now. We're also in the market for a star that goes with our new tree, but haven't found anything yet, obviously.

I think that first picture of them together with the tree (the day after Thanksgiving) is still my favorite. :)

Black Friday is always exciting around here. Jeremy loves looking for good deals (especially in electronics) and actually made it out early this year. He got a lot of good stuff, especially a 1.0 TB external hard drive for me. :) I have way too many video projects, and am always running out of space. The day was actually super warm (for this time of year) and we put up all the rest of our decorations and a few outside lights as well. Here's a picture of our kids "helping" our neighbors put theirs up...

More recent events

Here are several pictures of Jaina and Reilly playing with their favorite friend: Chad, and some of their favorite toys: the balls. They had a blast and Reilly cried when he left. (that's not unusual)

Jeremy has been extremely busy lately. The week before Thanksgiving, there were 4 days in a row when he wasn't really home more than like 15-20 minutes between 7 am and 10 pm every day. The kids had really been missing their daddy, and were glad to spend some time with him all of this last week. They love playing with him and having him around. (So does their mommy...)

We decided we were ready for a "traditionally-colored" Christmas tree after enjoying our white one the last several years. We found a good deal on a really pretty tree and couldn't help but put it up a few days before Thanksgiving. We didn't put any decorations on it (other than lights) until after Thanksgiving, but the kids were so excited. Every morning when they would come downstairs and see the lights, they would say "It's Christmas! Merry Christmas!" It took a few days of explaining that it's not quite Christmas before it sank in. I'm still not sure what they remember/know about Christmas, but they're excited...

A collection of randomness

that I've wanted to blog about, and just haven't gotten to... I'll post a few things tonight, and try to do some more tomorrow? Maybe. You can tell how that's been going if you see how long it's been between posts lately.
Also, since Jeremy got his new camera, our pictures are on both, and things are a little jumbled. This is a problem, because if I'm OCD about -anything-, it's keeping the chronology together with pictures and videos. This "two different filename beginnings" is a very upsetting..
So this picture is from early October. Yep. Soon after Reilly got his "Lucky Ducks" game for his birthday. It doesn't come out very often, though, because these two manage to fight over 10 almost identical ducks. And it's very quacky.
Here is a cute shot of my super-sleeper. (and the magical elephant) It's nice of her to be so agreeable about taking 2-3 hour naps (after the initial protest as I carry her to bed) and 11-12 hour nights. I guess she's making up for the whole first year where she was up anywhere from 2-10 times a night? Whatever. We'll take it, and cherish it while it lasts...


Here is a fun winter activity: I filled a container with beans, lentils, and popcorn, and let them go at it with the measuring cups. Yes, it makes a mess, but it's an easily-swept-up mess. And they love it!

And last, but most important:

Here are some pictures from Jeremy's "pinning ceremony" a few weeks ago. He got to officially put his white coat on and got stickers on his clinic badge, I think. ;-) This means that he'll be cleared to start seeing and adjusting patients in clinic sometime in the next week. Is that crazy, or what? We're so proud that he's made it this far, and he's very excited to start working with patients. Yay Jeremy!

Pontifications

Reilly just looked deep in thought while eating his breakfast, so I asked him, "Reilly, whatcha thinking about?" (He has asked us this some lately) "Um, I thinkin' about it be Jaina's party tomorrow!" He knows Jaina's birthday is next, and this kid is seriously into parties. :) ("tomorrow" is how he describes anything in the future right now) Hopefully he'll enjoy the Thanksgiving "party" later on this week...

Palmer Break, take 2

Jeremy's Daycare Service
2 weeks (ish) ago, we ended up with an extra little boy for 2 days (his mom was busy producing a little sister for him!), plus that Saturday we offered to watch another friend of Reilly's for the morning while her parents went to the temple, then meet them in Nauvoo with all the kids. I wasn't feeling too hot that day, so Jeremy ended up taking care of all 4 kids (3 and under) all morning, and then driving to Nauvoo with the older 3. (I kept Jaina so she could get a good nap in). He's pretty much amazing, and the kids had a blast! :)

Halloween!

The 30th was Davenport's "trick-or-treat" night, so we dressed the kids up and did about 8 houses. It was FREEZING! They thought it was cool though, and were quite excited about the candy. After 8 we threw in the towel and grabbed some late dinner at the mall...

On actual Halloween night we went to our ward's trunk-or-treat, and had a lot of fun again. Again, it was super cold though, and I was afraid we were going to lose a finger or two to frostbite... The kids were troopers and collected a lot of candy! (thankfully, I gave at least half of it away the next day during Singing Time) Here are pics of us at the Trunk-or-Treat, and with Reilly and Jaina's favorite friends, Chad and Jamie, hanging out at our "trunk."

Troublemakers

I mentioned that our kids had been making a lot of messes lately. One of the more exciting ones involved sidewalk chalk. One evening they found it under the sink (thanks, Aunt Sophie... ;-) and decorated all of our kitchen chairs. I was at a meeting or something, and Jeremy discovered the chalk-escapade when they came into the living room and started writing on his back. Sidewalk chalk doesn't come out of cream-colored fake microsuede (or whatever it is). Jeremy was very upset at them and told them all about it while they sat in time out and watched him attempt to clean it.

It obviously didn't make enough of an impact though, because the next day they found it again (from wherever he had stashed it) and proceeded to color all over our couches, toys, and chair in the living room. They did it all in 5-10 minutes, because that's how long they were alone down there before I came to check on them.

I was extremely angry, especially since they had just gotten in trouble for the same thing the night before, and because I was afraid it wouldn't come off any better than it did in the kitchen. Luckily for them, between the texture and the color of the upholstery, it came off much better, and there isn't really any sign of it. Here are the culprits in time-out as I cleaned.

I was smelling carpet cleaner when I sat down in there for DAYS, and I keep finding surfaces I missed (but they didn't), like the back of the couch next to the wall, for instance...

Jaina has also recently discovered the magical powers of stools (which we have in both bathrooms, to make it easier for Reilly). She's been using them to access all sorts of places that she couldn't before, and Reilly is only too happy to join in if she finds something that makes a mess...

Picture Time

We still love them, of course, and they made sure our break was anything but boring. Here are some pictures we took the Sunday before last, when we were actually ready before we had to rush out the door to be on time. They are getting so big!