Day at the Museum

Yesterday was a free day at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and we had some friends invite us to tag along with them for the morning.  Since we had never been there, and I have a hard time passing on anything free, we happily joined them.  The boys had a blast!  Though lots of the activities and exhibits were geared toward older children, there were plenty of things that fascinated the littles, too.  

This man in the dino bones suit greeted us as we entered the museum.  The boys thought he was awesome--until he turned his head toward McKay and opened his mouth!  McKay hollered at him and very quickly backed away.  He was quite leery of him the rest of the morning.  Anytime he spotted the dino, even if he was nowhere in his vicinity, he demanded that I hold him.  

There was a very cool Discovery Zone geared toward small children.  This was a computerized paint table--painting with no mess!  I could use one of those at home!

We also learned about outer space, animals, and dinosaurs.  It was a great morning!

When we were tired and hungry, we busted out a packed lunch to eat with our friends, too.

Thanks Bird family for a fun morning, and for sharing your pictures with us, too (I forgot my camera).  We loved it!

Just think...

PINK!!!

Marchant baby #3 is a GIRL!!  I didn't think it was possible for us to create girls, but apparently it is because we are having one!  I will affirm the fact that if this baby had been a boy, I wouldn't have been disappointed at all, but I am over-the-moon-happy that it's a girl!  I was so surprised and thrilled that I was actually crying during the ultrasound.  Yeah--we are excited!  Life is so, so good!

Weekend quotes by the Marchant brothers

There were a few things said by my boys over the weekend that I just need to record.  They can both be so silly sometimes!

When I came home from the gym Friday morning, my boys had just woken up.  I went over to Ty, hugged him, and asked him how he was feeling.

Ty:  (Dramatic sigh)  "Pretty messed up."
Me:  "Why are you feeling pretty messed up?"
Ty:  "Mom, don't you know that when someone tells you they are feeling pretty messed up it means they are feeling pretty great?"
Me:  "Oh, thanks for the heads up."

Later that day he came over to me, hugged me, and said, "Oh my sweet little darlin'.  I love you."  I had to crack up.  I promise I don't call my children "sweet little darlin's, and I have no idea where he got that from.  It was SO funny.

Yesterday getting McKay ready for church, he said, somewhat out of the blue, "Jesus is my very favorite guy."  Love that.

And after I had picked him up from nursery and we were getting ready to head home, a man in our ward approached us and started talking to McKay.  I said something about needing to go home and get him some lunch.  McKay stopped me and said, "No, I already had lunch at nursery."
Me:  "You probably had a snack, but I am sure they didn't feed you lunch at nursery."
McKay:  "Yeah, they did.  They really did."
Bro. Mortensen:  (Laughing)  "Did they give you a ham sandwich?"
McKay:  "No they made us grilled cheese sandwiches."
Bro. Mortensen:  (laughing harder) "Let me guess, with tomato soup, right?"
McKay:  "Yep.  Grilled cheese and soup.  That's what I ate in nursery today."

We either have a compulsive liar or a really good storyteller on our hands.  Let's hope it's the latter.

Life at 18 weeks

It's official.  I look pregnant.  This morning as I was leaving the gym, the woman who works nearly every morning at the front desk asked me, "Hey, Meggin, are you pregnant?"  After I responded affirmatively, she replied, "I was noticing as you were running this morning that you have a little bit of a tummy.  And you work out way too hard to have a tummy.  I figured you had to be pregnant."  Uh, thanks, I think.
My sister always jokes with me that when I am pregnant I go for quite a while before I start to show, and then I just pop suddenly and look very pregnant.  Well, folks, I have "popped."  When I went in two weeks ago for my sixteen week appointment, I hadn't gained a pound.  My doctor was a little worried and told me that I needed to "make sure I was eating enough."  I went home and had a corn dog for lunch.  :-)  Whatever it is, the corn dog or the fact that I have been feeling well and not throwing up any more (hallelujah!), it is becoming increasingly apparent that I am housing a little person.  I have been debating whether I ought to bust out the maternity clothes, but I am trying to hold off as long as possible on that one.  My jeans still fit and I have a few non-maternity shirts that still look relatively ok-ish, so I will go with that as long as I can.
This little person has started moving around quite a bit in the last week and a half, too.  That's my favorite part of being pregnant, at least up until the end when they are doing backflips at 3 AM.
Crazy that we will find out in just over two weeks the gender of this little bean!  I'm still thinking it's a boy, but I still really, really don't care either way.

Our ever-growing family and our ever-busy lives

What a whirlwind week and a half it has been!  In addition to the baby who will be making its debut in just five months, we have added another family member.  My youngest brother, Matt, has moved here from Utah and is now living with us.  We are all excited to have him here, but it has been BUSY as we have prepared for his coming.  The day after Christmas, we began the process of consolidating all of Ty and McKay's clothes and toys from their separate rooms into one bedroom to make space for Matt.  This is of course in addition to trying to find space for all of the Christmas gifts from the day before, too.  Let's just say it was a lot of work!  Then we had to buy furniture for Matt, assemble the furniture, and arrange it in his room.  By the end of the week, we had gotten everything done that we needed to, but we were seriously worn out.  The boys are loving sharing a room and sleeping in bunk beds, though!

We had talked about hosting a New Year's Eve party, but ultimately, we were just too tired to think of doing that.  Instead, the four of us just hung out at home, played a bunch of board games, and ate junk food.  In the words of one of our favorite storybook characters, it was "perfectly perfect."

At the very late hour of 8:30 (which really is late for our kids!) we let Ty hit pots and pans on the front porch (McKay was long asleep at that point).  He thought it was awesome!

Matt flew in from Utah on Monday morning.  We had all the priests over that afternoon for lunch so Matt could start to get to know some of the guys before school started.  The last couple of days have been spent getting him registered for school and seminary and buying those few last things that he needs.  Today is the first day that I feel like I am hitting my stride at last.  Everyone is getting into/back into their routines, and I am figuring out what our new "normal" looks like.  It's definitely different, and in some ways challenging to be raising toddlers and a teenager at the same time.  But we are happy and optimistic that this will be a good thing for everyone involved!