Hinton Pictures

I got to take pictures of some more friends this week. David, the older boy, is Tanner's bike riding buddy. They live right across from us. So naturally I've gotten to know Christie, and we will sure miss them when we move. : (





I made the mistake of taking Tanner with me on this photo shoot thinking I would get some really great smiles from David, and I did, but got lots of goofiness and boys running off. Won't take Tanner again I don't think, at least not when a friend is involved.

Ok. Ok. For real.

My mom said the shadow picture was too distorted so here is a non distorted shadow picture.
HA. Ha.

Ok, and some typical belly shots, with me in a pasted on smile. You know what is really going through my head at this point? "Ashlyn! Come out NOW! I don't want to share my body with you any more." Just kidding. sort of.

BUT I am at that super uncomfortable stage right now where . . .

. . . when I roll over in bed (which is several times a night) I have to take a deep breath and hold onto my stomach and body pill, then flop over, and I am breathing hard after the feat. I whack Nate half the time too. I think he is ready for me to not be prego too.

. . . OR today, I want to spank Dallin for dropping his penny on the ground from the cart and wanting me to get it for him, 4 times! I swear one time a man stopped to watch me as I prepared myself to bend over then grunt and grumble while doing it. Stupid flat coin!

You moms can totally relate right? Especially those that have birthed twins! Oh boy! You have my respect and admiration.

37 weeks

Welp, I am 37 weeks now and not feeling like being photographed. This is the not so cute stage of pregnancy, so this is my belly shot. Maybe a little distorted since it is a shadow but, do you see how low she is!?! I think she is about ready, can't get much lower without coming out.

These are typical faces of Dallin. He is getting attitude and independence. Today he and his 2 year old friend Mason wandered off and were lost for over a half hour. We even called the cops we were getting so worried. Had lots of friends, maybe 15, looking for the boys. The boys ended up out in the grassy area behind our complex where a couple of hikers found them and led them back. Pretty scary.

And a picture of Tanner.

Some of my beautiful in-laws

Meet Nate's brother, Jordan, and his lovely wife, Michaela, and Calin, their cute little boy.

What? She and I could be sisters? Yeah, we've heard that before.

Who gets their due date wrong?

So I go to the doctor today and the nurse says "So, 35 weeks and 6 days huh?" I was thinking I was going to be 36 weeks on Thursday not tomorrow. Turns out I had my due date wrong this whole time. I am due October 26th, not the 28th. Cool! You moms know 2 days is a big deal. I asked if we could induce to get us to Nate's clinical affiliation on time and Doc said we can go a week early if things (my cervix) are looking good, whatever that means.

What we've been up to

My mom pointed out that I haven't updated my blog in a while, so here is an update.

Dallin is potty training and doing surprisingly well. I don't know why I say surprisingly because Tanner was pretty easy too. But it seems that more often than not, potty training is a negative experience. Actually, the first day Dallin only peed in the toilet once the rest were in his undies. I wanted to stop, thinking he wasn't ready, but pushed through another day and he got it. Only one accident, so we continue and he is doing great. So happy about this. We'll only have one in diapers when Ashlyn gets here. Yay!

We've been playing outside every minute we can knowing it won't be long until it gets too cold to play outside. Love having a play ground right out our backyard.

Been working on lots of projects too. Tanner gets a sticker for bringing his scriptures to church so he wanted a bag to put it in, and of course Dallin did too. So I made these two.

Found this adorable fabric and had to have it. Didn't have plans for it when I bought it, but decided it would make a cute nursing cover. I have, oh gosh, I don't even know how many other projects going on. A quiet book, a boppy cover, dresses, booties, quilt, cross stitch stocking, etc. Love to keep busy, I only get a a few hours a week to work though.

I've been doing home school preschool with Tanner. Nothing too structured or consistent just as he is in the mood for "homework" (that is what he calls it). I hate to push learning on him; don't want him to hate it. So we do letters, shapes, and numbers a few times a week, and practice writing and cutting. He is excited for kindergarten.

Our neighbors

These are our lovely neighbors. We've been lucky to always have great neighbors.

This is Tanner's princess, Breanna. He calls several girls "My Princess". I am glad he knows how to treat girls, or at least call them what they want to be, a princess.

Nate the Barber

Not much going on lately, so you get a boring post about hair cuts. Nate is the official hair cutter for the boys in our family. Saves us a bundle. I hope to cut Ashlyn's hair when the time comes. Can't be that hard right? Ha! We will see. The boys are squirmy.

"No, Dad, it tickles when you get by my ears."
Yes, we strip them down to cut their hair.

Doesn't that make you itch just looking at that hair on his shoulders?

Look what I have been going overboard on lately

I am not a very balanced person. When I get an idea I go crazy with it til it is boring. I am almost bored with bow/flower making. I haven't done much with ribbon yet, but I have some ideas. I really didn't think I would be into bows if I had a girl. But the second I found out I am having a girl I got all kind of girly ideas. So weird. But seriously how many blue flowers does one girl need? Sheesh! I will use some gender neutral baby clothes, so these will help people know she's a girl. I may use some myself they are kind of cute on big girls too.

I hate this!

Love this!

You can't see all the funniness in this picture of Dallin, but his underwear are wet too (no we aren't really potty training, he just pooed about half hour before a bath so I put him undies. This was the 2nd pair of underwear he went through in that half hour).

Trying to blow Bubbles

It is always fun to see kids learning to blow bubbles.

Dallin's many faces

Dallin has many expressions that I have been wanting to capture because they are so darn cute. I followed him around at our ward camp out and took some. He often had his mouth full. Couldn't keep him away from the dessert table!

Ashlyn's afghan

Finished! I don't have many blankets that aren't blue, so I decided to teach myself to crochet one in girly pink. It is not perfect, that is why the flowers; I had to cover up some weird stitching along the edges. I finally figured out what I was doing wrong so most of it is fine.
I've decided I am not a very good do it your selfer. I could really use a mentor when learning a new skill. I am a professional coverer upper though. I am pretty good at covering up mistakes. :)

Happy 4th Tanner

I wanted to make Tanner's party as simple and fun as possible. I hate making events stressful for myself with over planning. Birthdays are supposed to be fun, not dreaded. So, we did slip n slide, and it was a blast. Almost all the kids participated, I didn't expect that. I made a basketball cake for Tanner as he requested. I attempted fondant with this one and it turned out yummy. Not the prettiest, but not horrible either. The fondant part was fine, it was the dumb writing that got me. Any tips on how to do pretty writing on cakes? I just got the store bought stuff in a tube.


Some of the moms.

Dallin was one who didn't participate. Instead he and his buddy Mason chowed down on crackers and watched.

Don't click on the pictures to see the details of the cake. :) It is better if you kind of blur your eyes. Ha ha.