Christmas Gift Exchange

Ok - Lynnea helped me and we drew names for the cousin gift exchange. Here's what we came up with:

Jenna gives to Brooks
Kaylee gives to Lizzie
Nathan gives to Caitlin
Lisette gives to Ashley
Talia gives to Lynnea

Caitlin gives to Talia
Lizzie gives to Garret

Erica gives to Nathan
Ashley gives to Jenna
Brooks gives to Lisette

Lynnea gives to Kaylee

Garret gives to Erica

What's the amount? $10?



As for the siblings - I think I have Crystal this year which means we go 3 down. This also means everyone has their opposite (I have Crystal & Crystal has me).

If I'm wrong - the right way is to give to the person directly younger than the person you gave to last year, but I think I had Leticia last year though, so this should be right.

It's been fun to hear of the Las Vegas Lambourne activites - It's hard to keep a good man down is definately true about Rod & biking... Dad has caught the bug and now he's biking with Adam. Crystal wants everyone to know her birthday's coming up - We had Mother Lambourne here with us for much of August. She kept me hopping. She really likes to get out and do things. She seems in pretty good health. We got to share in some of the HUGE chocolate strawberries Tiffany got - one was a meal (Crystal & I shared one). We're getting ready for a youth fireside at our house tomorrow. My pineapple sage (herb) is just coming into bloom, so I'll need to cut the branches & dry them to use this winter - my favorites pineapple sage & cinnamon basil. The pineapple sage got so big that the rosemary didn't get enough sun and is relatively small this year. MOM

Christmas among the Cousins

So who wants to figure out what cousin has what cousin this Christmas? It's almost October, time to start crackin'!! There's 12 now, so that's a nice and even number. I'm just wondering what nieces and/or nephews to start shopping for. Also, does anyone know who has who among us siblings? I know Kim already sent out the extended info, but I forgot how it works among our immediate family.

sorry it's underlined

This weekend Rod did a bike race! It's called the Cactus Cup, it's a 3-day stage race of various events (Cross Country, Super D, etc). There were pros there and everything! Rod even recognized a few from his magazines. The serious people do all 3 days of events, for a chance to win the overall awards. Rod did the Super D on Saturday. The girls and I got there right after he finished the race (I didn't think the girls would do well waiting in the desert for an hour for Rod to finish the race). It was fun to see all the competitors and bikes. Afterwards they had a big event at a park with booths and vendors and things, so we made a day of it. The girls really enjoyed playing at the park, which had a water part to it. Rod entered in the Beginner class, and finished 6th overall out of 21. Rod's doctor told him this week that he needs to have 2 more surgeries on his arms...so Rod figured he'd better do stuff like this as much as he's able!

Caitlin pretending it's cold outside!

Lizzie LOVED the water park!

The "coach" at the midwestern-themed park

The finish line (the women were just finishing)

The girls think their dad is sooooo cool!

Here's some pictures of us lately, starting with the most recent. This weekend we had a fun ward activity at some natural warm springs owned by the LDS Church. It was a lot of fun, and the water is incredible- no chlorine! Just natural springs circulating throughout the huge pool. Someone told me the whole pool is replaced every hour or so by the circulating springs. And the water is perfect! Our ward had a bbq and the girls really enjoyed swimming around:

Caitlin was really hard to get a picture of- she was always on the move!
Lizzie max-relaxin' in her tube.

Bug goggles! Caitlin made this in preschool. She LOVED them, she thought they were so cool! Preschool is working out well (a lady in our ward does it out of her home), I'm really glad about that!

This is part of our Labor Day. Rod had the day off, so we filled the day with wild and crazy adventures like painting terra cotta pots (even Rod had one to paint!). The girls loved it. Then they set up a reading picnic after swimming in the little pool- they were just so happy to read books while frying in the sun.

Last but not least, my friend had her baby at home last night! And I was there! It was exciting and short- I got there at 2:30 am and she had her baby at 3:45! I'm glad I got to see sort of how the whole home birth thing works, and exactly how it's different from a hospital birth. It was a neat experience!

Braggin' on my hubby!

Hello everyone. I just realized I forgot to tell you guys how awesome Adam was for my birthday this year. I got SPOILED!!!

We took advantage of Labor Day (the day before my birthday) and went out to a nice dinner, with no baby! I had some amazing lamb chops. Yum YUm! Also Adam gave me tickets to go see Wicked, the musical!!! I am soooo excited! It's not until May, but I've heard so many good things about it.

On my actual birthday (Tuesday) I had to go back to work. After a long 2 hour meeting I had a voicemail from the front desk that I had a package. I went up and Adam had sent me a beautiful arrangement of flowers.

Wednesday afternoon I got 2 dozen roses delivered to my work. Thursday he sent me chocolate covered strawberries, and Friday I got a Bath & Body Works set. It was a whole birthday week!

I feel so loved!!!!

It's a...

We're going to have a GIRL!! The estrogen in our house is going to tangible! We are excited, and the girls can now bury their fears of having a brother (for now)!

Warning: long-winded post ahead

So I think most of you know we're planning on a home birth for this one. There's lots of reasons and I could list them all, but that would be a long, detailed, boring post. I just wanted to post my midwife's webpage, in case anyone's curious: http://sweetmidwiferycare.com/

It is nothing short of awesome having a midwife, though. My prenatal appointments go like this: she comes to my house (no driving! no babysitters!!), has all her gear in a little rolling suitcase, I get weighed, urine tested, blood pressure taken, belly measured, baby's heartbeat listened to- absolutely everything they do in the doctor's office. Except it's personal and my kids can be involved. She asked Caitlin if she wanted to do the jelly on my belly for the baby's heartbeat- she said no, but I bet she will next time. She's at my house about an hour, talking about nutrition, exercise, any questions I have, etc. She has books and videos I can borrow about birth. Contrast that with my ob/gyn appointments- 20 minutes driving to/from, waiting 1 hour in the waiting room, waiting 20 minutes in the exam room, the doctor comes in for literally 5-10 minutes, talks to the nurse ABOUT me rather than at me, and barely takes the time to confirm all is well before hustling to his next appointment. Most ob/gyn's do about 30 births/month. My midwife limits herself to 4. This is because she'll come as soon as I call and say I'm in labor, vs. my doctor who comes the last 5 minutes to catch the baby after the nurses have done all the work. Granted, you have to be having a low-risk, normal pregnancy for any responsible midwife to take you, and it's smart to be in close driving range of a hospital (we're 15 minutes away). If anything in the course of my pregnancy turned high-risk, she'd refer me back to an ob/gyn.

There's a couple of good, qualified midwives here in Vegas, these women aren't hippies. They are educated, qualified professionals who are credientaled and very experienced. I'm a little partial to mine, of course, because she has a few perks: 1)she comes to my house! all the other midwives I know of have offices for their patients to come to. 2) she's a full-fledged MD from Venezuela, where she's from, so she has a very strong medical background and knows how to spot an emergency. She's not anti-medicine or anti-doctor. 3) she lived with an LDS family for a year as an exchange student, so she knows quite a lot about our religion. She knows what garments are about and if I needed a priesthood blessing or wanted to say a prayer or whatever during labor, she knows what those are and what they're for, and is very respectful of our religion. Those are just a few perks that led me to choose her over others, plus she's just very personable and friendly, so it's more like a friend/midwife which was important to me since this is a pretty personal experience.

So that's a basic rundown. Sorry, this wasn't supposed to be boring and detailed! There's lots more I could say...but I better stop here!

Also, we're getting our ultrasound on Monday the 8th!! So look for a girl-or-boy post!!

Pics from California

Hi everyone! Adam and I just got back from California. Here are some pictures.

Us and Deagan at Columbia, an old mining town in CA

Everyone, but Tami and Sean at Pixie Woods Park

Cute Cousins - Deagan, Lynnea, and Kaeli

Jail bird baby

Grandpa Sweet and Lynnea at Micke Grove Zoo

Uncle Adam and Deagan

Uncle Jason and Lynnea

Grandma Sweet, Lynnea, and Ashley

Lynnea was playing with chalk and ended up looking like Charlie Chaplin

Adam, his brother Jason, and his sister Tami

Lynnea's just so cute

Adam and his boys

Auntie Tasha and Uncle Jason, Lynnea, and me on the horse-drawn stage coach in Columbia

Aunt Tasha and Lynnea

The Sweet ladies

Lynnea was sad to leave