The Big Layoff

Well as many of you know if you live in the area Stillwater Mining Company just had a pretty big layoff which included closing down the East Boulder Mine completely. Well Most of the miners were brought back on at our Nye minesite due to the fact that we had been cancelling many of our labor contracts in the previous weeks. But as for the support staff, they were cut dramatically. The department that I worked in started out with six plus the manager and is now down to two plus the manager. They are actually bringing in someone from the Nye site to take over my job. It all really sucks but what can ya do. We knew it was coming. Seeing as how metel prices have dropped to practically nothing and all of our contracts are with the car industry it was bound to happen. I just hope that they don't end up closing the entire mine. So I am now officially unemployed.
Seeing as how I am twelve weeks away from my due date I have a few complications when it comes to finding a job. Like, NO ONE HIRES A PREGNANT PERSON WHO IS THIS CLOSE TO THEIR MATERNITY LEAVE! So Josh is looking for a day job and has been able to switch all of his classes around for next semester so that they are all online. We are really lucky that he was able to do that so we don't fall behind when it comes to school. He is actually at an interview right now so I am super nervous and hope that it goes well. In the meantime everyone is adjusting to having me home, especially Preston. He has been fighting a cold all of last week so I am sure that hasn't helped but Kendra and Ethan have told me many times how much they like that I get to take them to school and pick them up. I have enjoyed having so much time in my day! I have been able to get laundry done and a few other things that had been piling up for months. I will keep everyone posted on how the job hunting goes and hopefully it won't last too long.

Curly Q

I have always wanted one of my children to have curly hair, and Preston has pulled through on that wish. His hair astonishes me sometimes it is so curly. The only thing is that it is super thin, both Kendra and Ethan had super thin baby hair at first and now they have very VERY grown up hair. I even have to use mommy and daddy shampoo on Ethan's hair or it smells that is how thick it is. So I have hope that Preston's hair will fill in. His uncle Devin even asked with concern last Sunday if Preston's hair was going to be curly and stay that thin, I almost had to laugh out loud with the seriousness of Devin's tone. For now we are enjoying the curls and I try to keep him from looking like a clown. The only thing is that after a nap his hair gets pretty crazy and by the next day it is practically flat. My fear is that those curls aren't going to stick around so we just take advantage of them while we can.

I thought that I would share a picture from actual Halloween night. It was plenty nice out for a Montana Halloween and that hood on Ethan's head didn't stay on for long. We put Preston in his stroller and he was perfectly content with only going up to every couple of doors. Kendra and Ethan started out in a full out RUN but Ethan didn't last too long. Kendra on the other hand had Josh take her back out with our next door neighbor while the boys and I stayed home to hand out the candy. She came back with half a pillowcase full. Yes I said pillowcase, Josh and I made the mistake of telling the kids that we used pillowcases when we were young. No pumpkins for our kiddos :)

Since it was so nice out there was no way I could talk Ethan into being Elmo, but that is ok he enjoyed being dash. We have recently been watching the Star War's movies with Kendra and Ethan so we already have next years costumes picked out. Preston is going to be Yoda, Kendra Princess Lea and Ethan will be Luke Skywalker. And if we feel up to it Josh can be Darth Vader and I can be Padme. Little Aubrey will have to be an Ewok. LOL!

Double Digits!

I have been watching and waiting patiently for my counter to get below 100 days left until my due date and it is finally here, YAY ONLY 98 DAYS LEFT!!! We are getting very excited for baby girl to join our family. I have been busy finding some great deals on baby girl clothes and organizing my boxes and boxes of baby stuff. I have even ventured onto Ebay to sell some of my baby boy clothes and it has gone great! I have actually gotten rid of a lot of stuff and made way more money than I ever would have selling it at a garage sale or on cosignment so it has been pretty fun and I can do it in my spare time and ushually after the kids have gone to bed. And I still have two rubbermaids full of stuff left to sell. I started with the stuff that Preston just grew out of and have been working my way down so I still have newborn to 12 months and WOW I had a lot of boy clothes! I am going to use the money I make on ebay for my diaper fund. I have never had two kids in Diapers at once and HOLY COW I am NOT looking forward to it. Although Preston has been showing us a few signs that he is ready so I definitely won't be postponing that step any longer than necessary. But Ethan does still wear Pull-ups to bed. He sleeps like a log and just can't seem to stay dry so any helpful hints there are greatly appreciated. (We did try the banana thing and that didn't work.)
We had parent-teacher confrences last week and they went wonderful, I keep asking myself how long this can last, but like my mom pointed out to me last night, she was blessed with never really having to worry too much about her kids and school. I am praying that I can follow in her footsteps. I am glad that Halloween is over and we can look forward to Thanksgiving, I LOVE Thanksgiving. You just can't beat the food and I love seeing my brothers and sisters and spending the day with them and watching those cousins have such a blast together. I started Christmas shopping this weekend and it seems like I have a mountain in front of me with three kids and a ton of extended family to shop for, not to mention Kendra's Eighth birthday (which also means baptism) and Preston's second birthday all within days of Christmas. I am sure that I will survive and at least I won't be expecting to go into labor at any point like with Kendra and Preston. We tried to space this one a little better :D

Fun at home

A few weeks ago we had the most awesome snowstorm, it just kept coming and coming! This is the pile that Josh shoveled off the driveway, it was so tall that Preston was afraid to be sitting on the top. Josh enjoyed jumping into it! I just couldn't resist taking this picture, Ethan is so sweet and loves his build-a-bears, he sleeps with them every night!

So the other morning Josh found Preston this way. Apparently he had discovered how to unzip his pajamas. He was just hanging out on the couch watching his daily dose of sesame street, sucking his thumb, with his clothes halway off.

Trunk or Treat

On Friday we had our Trunk or Treat for church. As of that afternoon we still didn't have a costume for Kendra so I came right home and got to work, by the time I had all of the kids ready and fed it was time to go. When we got there the place was PACKED, apparently the trunk or treat/carnival was for all three of the wards in our building. I knew a lot of people from over the years and when I got home and looked in the mirror I was so embarassed, talk about having an off day. I had decided to use "Casual" friday to the fullest extent. I told Josh that he could have said something to me but he just shrugged it off. Needless to say I spend a little extra time getting ready for the next couple of days to make up for it :) We talked Ethan into being Elmo so that he would stay warmer and also in hopes of saving the Dash costume for next year since it is still pretty big on him, (it was Kendra's costume a few years ago)

Here is our little cowboy, Preston.

I had this old dress from a Texas Roadhouse Costume party a few years ago so Idid a few modifications and added a pretty hairdo and make-up and we had a movie star in our midst.

Isn't this the perfect cowboy face?

My kiddos are such posers! Kendra had no problem playing the part of a movie star, can ya tell?

Fall Fun

We have so many leaves! For the past eight years we have either not had a yard or the trees that we did have had like five leaves on it. Now we have more leaves than we had ever dreamed of. Josh has raked one bag, yup ONE, so we have a long way to go. In the meantime the kids are having a blast.

ITS A GIRL

Well, I didn't think that it was possible but we will be welcoming a little girl into our family in febuary. She is growing good and everything looks to be just perfect. The kids all went with us to the ultrasound appointment and were so excited. (We had been talking about it for a while) They all wanted a baby sister and their wish was granted. Kendra kept asking lots of questions and was genuinely interested. Ethan was excited and paid attention as well but that didn't last and Preston was good and kept saying sissy, baby, sissy. I had snuck a few candies into my purse before we went just in case and boy was I glad that I did. The baby was curled up in a ball and so it was very hard to get the pictures and measurements that the ultrasound tech wanted so it took quite a bit of time.

My mom thinks that she might look like Ethan, I told her that I couldn't tell and that all the kids look alike anyways.
The only fun thing she did for us was she finally moved her hands so that we could count those little fingers and she gave us a thumbs up.The name that we have picked out is Aubrey Michele Wynia.