Ketchup

I tell you what, this 3rd pregnancy leaves me with no desire to blog.

Here's what we've been up to:

• Thanksgiving. We drove to Richmond, VA and spent Thanksgiving with my Aunt Sherry & Uncle Jim. They are the owners of the Metro Richmond Zoo (the largest privately owned zoo in the country), so it was quite a treat for the kids (and us!) to have three days of zoo access! I'll definitely have to get some pictures off my camera to post of that.
• My 26th birthday. December 5th came around once again. My new friend Crystal (one of the moms in our preschool co-op) watched the kids for me while I went shopping (Dan had a final that day)! I ended up mostly getting things for Violet, but that's more fun anyway because she looks cute in everything. That night we went out to Chili's because we had a gift card there...and we were quite disappointed. That place has fallen far from glory. No more awesome blossom onion, way too much dressing on the salad, and hamburgers dry, dry, dry. Ugh. 
• Ultrasound of baby #3. On December 7th we found out we're having another GIRL! My due date has officially been moved up to April 28th because she was measuring a week ahead of schedule. Weird for me since my other two babies always measured small but then came right on time anyway. I don't know which due date to trust now...
• More traveling. We flew out to Utah on December 12th. Boy, that flight from Raleigh to Phoenix (over 5 hrs.!) was the longest flight I've been on since my Europe trips. AGONY. And then we still had the flight to SLC. It makes me really hope we get a job closer to home because traveling with kids is pretty much the worst punishment I can think of.
• Burst ear drum. Luke had a fever the first couple days we were here, and when my sister Rebekah (she's in the nursing program at BYU) looked in his ear with her otoscope, she discovered that his ear drum had actually burst. Poor kid. He really is a trooper. We're not sure if it burst on the plane or afterwards, but he is my hero because he never really acted like he was in pain even though it must have really hurt! He just wanted his mommy A LOT. 
• Wedding + stomach flu. My sister Michelle's wedding was on December 17th. It was crazy and hectic for several reasons. One because we, the bride's family, ended up doing both the reception AND the luncheon, and my poor frugal mom wanted to do all the food from scratch, homemade, etc. It may be awhile before we forgive Jason for that :). Seriously. Another reason it was crazy was that I ended up getting the stomach flu the day of the wedding. (As if I haven't been throwing up enough this year.) Throwing up during my sister's reception was definitely not something I had imagined for that day. Oh yeah, and then there was the charming side effect of the vomiting--it made me burst two blood vessels in my eye, so I just looked absolutely lovely. (And I'll go ahead and mention here that my eyes were already bloodshot from our Sisters' Trip to the salon for some eyelash extensions for that special day...my eyes didn't like that one bit. I guess I just don't do glamour well!)
• More stomach flu. Violet and Dan got the flu the very next day (Dec 18th), and Dan's sweet mom took care of Violet when she had to get up in the middle of the night to throw up. Luke was spared this time around (he's already suffered enough this month!), and thankfully by now we have all recovered. Except my eye still has a super-attractive spot of blood still hanging out right there by my iris. I was hoping it would leave by Christmas, but it's getting rather close now so I just don't know...
• Christmas prep + partying. We have had fun visiting and playing games with our families, riding on the North Pole Express train (the Heber Creeper!) with Dan's family, meeting some friends from Chicago for lunch (Josh and Barbie!), and shopping in the crazy Utah Valley holiday traffic. 

I'm leaving plenty of stuff out I'm sure but I guess the family record just has to suffer a bit when I go this long between updates. We hope you are all well and that you've avoided any and all viruses this holiday season. Merry Christmas to all!