"No Apple and Stem"

I had my 20 wk. ultrasound yesterday. My sweet friend came over to watch the boys since they were all home from snow day and Tagg was sick. With a full bladder and anticipation we headed out.

Here's our pretzel baby.

If you are wondering the sex of the baby you have to endure the same process I did. It was vague, weird and confusing. That said our low talking quiet tech asked us a few questions at the beginning. "Do you want to know the sex of your baby?" I said "yeah, we are curious because we already have 4 boys." After that comment I think I scared the tech. I believe he was thinking, oh man, I better get this right. He briefly skimmed over the right area but said nothing and continued on with the rest of the ultrasound. Not much said and finishing up he returned to "the spot". No joke he went over it and over it and then finally said, "I don't see an apple and stem." And not 3 seconds later his phone rang and he picked it up. I looked at Jared like what?! "Did he just say no apple and stem?!" Does that mean we are having a girl?! He gets off the phone and then continues to check out baby. I was so confused and in shock of what to think. I was waiting for a still frame and for him to type in GIRL, but no. I asked what the percentage was for accuracy and he gave me girls 95% and boys 98%. Ok. As we were leaving I finally turned and said, "so it's a girl right?" He said "95% sure". Jared made fun of me for asking but I wanted to hear it come from the tech's mouth. Are you kidding me, you kind of ruined our moment with your vagueness and phone call. I was in shock and awe. I told Jared on the way out, "we can do it, it's possible." And my sweet husband said, "I told you I wouldn't let you down."

Oh man what a day. So we are having a GIRL!!!!! (95% sure) :) Not much else was said, so I'm assuming all else is fine. I've always got a phone call for some weird ailment so I was waiting for one. We just pray this little girl continues to grow healthy and strong and we can't wait to see her! Her, that sounds weird.

Snow Day

The boys had school on Monday for a make up snow day...and then yesterday had it off because of a real snow day! They were so excited to wake up to this.

It's not much, but it's Oregon.

Rees, Jackson (neighbor), and Luke were out in the snow all morning. Darin only lasted about a half hour. Tagg made it to the porch and then came back in, he's sick and not feeling well otherwise he probably would have been rolling in it.

Later that day they all crashed in front of a movie. Gotta love no school!

My Man

It was Jared's Bday last Friday. I have to say it wasn't a very spectacular Bday celebration. I didn't do a very good job. He leaves at 6:30am for work so I got up and made his favorite breakfast and he was off to work for the day. I set up a babysitter and once he came home we headed back out to Eugene (where he just commuted from) and shopped at Best Buy for his present. I knew what he wanted but needed him to help pick it out. We got him a wireless router and an external hard drive. Exciting! We then headed to Chili's to eat dinner which was a little disappointing so we stopped at BK for a whopper on the way home. I didn't even take a pic, there were no wrapped presents or cake since we are going to do that part next week with his brothers. So this post is dedicated to my man and all the things I love about him.

Many think Jared is so serious but if you know him well enough he can be pretty silly and is super funny and I love it!

He never wastes an opportunity to teach our boys, he is always talking about how something works or asking them questions to get their minds working.

He is super brilliant. He got a BS, MS and PhD all in Physics! He loves to learn and is always pursuing new ideas. He is one of the hardest workers I know. He has always provided for our family and when he gives you his word to do something he follows through.

He always spends some quality time with his boys. He reads poems and scriptures to them every night.

He is always trying to get to boys outdoors and do something new and encourage them to take an adventure.

He loves our Savior and the gospel and studies it till exhaustion :)

He embraces the fact that he has all boys and knows that wrestling is a must in our home and loves to challenge the boys.

Jared is a good man, a great involved supportive father, loving husband, loyal friend, excellent brother and son and I love him very much! Happy Bday Jared!

Blue & Gold Banquet

This was Rees' second Blue and Gold Banquet for scouts. He was excited. Of course we had the tradition of the boys making a cake. Rees wanted to redeem himself from last year. (old post) He and Jared thought it would be cool to make the millenium falcon from star wars. Go for it, I told Jared he was going to help him since, lets face it he is the most creative out of the two of us. I pitched in a little, but I was super impressed with their creation. Rees was excited and that's all that matters.

This was a three day process, because mom didn't want to be stressed out last minute since I was helping with the banquet anyways. Rees baked the cake on Monday. On Tues him and Jared carved it and assembled the cockpit with a cupcake. Then I made frosting and we colored it and iced it and put a few embelishments.

After trying jolly ranchers that fell off Rees used M&Ms to finish it off.

Final touches.

The Millenium Falcon Cake

the rear shot

At the banquet we set it up so it looked like it was flying, of course this was all Jared's idea that Rees thought was so cool.

The night went well. We had a fantastic gourmet potato bar. There was a slide show of Socrates, it was Greek tragedy themed.

The boys performed a song they were working on with their leaders.

Sorry bad shots, but the boys did a greek skit where they all died. Of course we provided all the weapons for the props for the skit - what other family has a endless supply of weapons?

Rees getting his cake award - Most out of this world.

The boys by their cakes, there were some really cool ones.

They later made some greek columns out of icing and sugar cubes. They had a fun night and it went well. Now on to pine wood derby! The fun never stops in scouts...sigh.

loVe Day

Valentines was a simple day. I barely woke up to make Jared some breakfast that consisted of peanut butter toast with heart shaped jelly on it. Amazing I know. I am not a morning person. I herded the rest of them and just had a typical morning and ran them off to school. I did put an extra treat in their lunches.

Sunday night we had a nice dinner of steak and twice baked potatoes so I went simple for Vday since it was a typical busy school day. We had spaghetti (it's red :) breadsticks, and such. The hit was the martinellis - my boys can't get enough of the stuff. During the previous week they picked secret family valentines and were suppose to be doing nice things for each other. They all made them a valentine and we put them at the table with some goodies I put together. At dinner we talked about who we had and what we did for them. It was a little pathetic with the deeds but some were done and hopefully they learned something. I have to admit that Jared probably did the best job, he had Tagg and it was cute watching him play with him and hang out with him.

Darin and I were in charge of FHE and did a few love at home games. We then had chocolate dipped strawberries for a treat. Simple this year, but we sure love each other!

If You Ask a Physicist a Question...

...especially a physicist that is a teacher, you better brace yourself for the answer and some experiments to follow. It reminds me of the books, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, and they go on and on through a whole story of different events leading to more events.

A couple Sunday's ago the boys were cleaning up the dishes (my new favorite rule) and Rees asked Jared why he had to use hot soapy water to wash the table, not just cold water. Jared loves a good question especially when it involves physics applications. He goes on to tell of germs and soap cutting dirt and what not. He shows the boys the pepper in the bowl of water trick and adding soap. Which of course leads to more questions and more demos. Pretty soon they were doing physics experiments in the kitchen and the boys were riveted. Gotta love a husband that embraces teaching opportunities.

Jared is heating up a plastic bottle to show the boys how he can crush it with cold water.

The boys anxiously awaiting.

Jared then put cold water on it and they watched it get crushed. So cool Dad! Jared then proceeded to the internet to show how someone did this with a train cargo tanker. Physics can be pretty cool. Just last night Jared made a home experiment to take into his physics class to prove a point about acceleration. It was funny watching him dig into my craft box and rig up his experiment. I should have taken a picture. :) And that is what you get when you ask a physicist a question.