{Thank you Miss California}

I just have to say, Good for you Miss California for standing by what you believe in and staying true to yourself. So many people stand by you. Poor Judge Hilton made a fool of himself defending his side---his side which makes absolutely no sense. He was very contradictory in what he said on MSNBC and sounded like an intolerant ignorant fool. Thank you Miss California for being so classy and staying true to yourself. You are a great example to so many and should be our Miss USA.

Eeewww, and you know what, i have to say one more thing....I saw a headline that said it was shocking to hear someone say on television that they believed that marriage should be b/w a man and a woman. What? What is so shocking about that? Come on....a few years ago it was shocking to hear someone admit to being gay and now it is completely opposite. I remember how shocking it was when people started coming forward admitting they were gay. How quickly things changed. I mean, It isn't shocking anymore, obviously. Also, Judge Hilton said that what Miss California said was offensive...I am sorry, but when has it ever been offensive to say what you believe? It is offensive if you were to actually OFFEND someone, but for a man who seems so concerned about HIS freedom of speech and what HE wants and making sure he is heard, he is quite intolerant of someone else's own personal beliefs that are different than his... again, that weren't even offensive. She did it in a classy way. He called her a stupid *$@!& even. Now who is offensive here? Who sounds uneducated? Seriously. Unfortunately for him he sounds like an angry uneducated ignorant human being. I even saw a headline that Miss California ruined her chances of ever going on Ellen. Who the heck cares anyway? Boo hoo. She can't go on Ellen. waaahhh. I am sick of the media. I mean, i watch Ellen sometimes. I love watching her b/c she if so funny. I am not going to stop watching her b/c we have different beliefs, but apparently she won't tolerate others with different beliefs. Sad.

{A Mom's Life}

You have to watch this...maybe the majority of you have seen this. I saw it awhile ago, but ran into it again and thought i would post the link if you haven't seen it. Mom and dady, you have to watch this. Just click on this link... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7R9SFBLvIk

{Over the weekend...}

We went with some friends on Saturday to a rock climbing place(i can't remember the name)....Whipps ledges, i think. The boys and i watched Shane and his buddies climb this wall. Here are 2 pictures of Shane taking on the task. This first picture he kind of got stuck in the hole. It was funny.

Then after the rock climbing we all went to BrandyWine Falls and had a picnic and then enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

Here is our cute little family....won't be so little anymore after a few more weeks.

I had to take a picture of this bench b/c it said "I heart Ash"....It was fun seeing my nickname carved into a bench, so i took a picture. :)

We did a lot of climbing---well, for an 8 month pregnant woman it was a lot. :) BUT, i made it just fine and considered that my workout for the day. It was a fun day.

Later That Night

Shane and i went on a date. We went to see Benjamin Button, which was a good story i guess, but it was too slow. We were occasionally looking looking at our watches hoping it was over soon. It is amazing to me how they can make Brad Pitt look so young and beautiful. :) We stopped at Wendy's to get a Frosty...a small frosty. When they gave us the cup, it was this mini cup....it wasn't the size we always get for a 99 cent Frosty. It was quite hilarious. I don't know if they were playing a joke on us, or if they have downsized. AND when we pulled up to order and came over the intercom saying their usual line, "welcome to Wendy's, would you like, blah blah, and etc." Anyway, this lady was overly exaggerating every word and super excited, it was strange. Overall, it was a strange visit to Wendy's. We had a good night though and it was nice to get out of the house....ALONE.

The Day Before

The boys and I went to the park with some friends and we all got sunburned. We were out there for about 2 hours i guess and i didn't even think about putting on sunscreen. It was like 60 degrees outside. Anyway, needless to say, we got a little sun on our faces. :)

Oh, can you believe it...I am going to be 8 months pregnant this weekend. Crazy, huh? I can't believe how fast this pregnancy has gone by so far. :) I meant to take my maternity pics over the weekend, but things came up and we got busy, so i don't know when i am going to do it. I can't do it this weekend b/c we will be in D.C. I will have to do it shortly after that.

{What goes on in a house full of boys}

Tanner's pouting session.... And then quickly watch his pouting change into happiness when he notices the camera is on him.

Use my boys to get my photography fix.

The boys love to play with cars and dinosaurs, love to wrestle each other, love to watch Disney movies, love to play outside on their bikes, and most of all they love to play ball. Tanner is our little football player. He really likes to watch football, he loves wearing football shirts, and he always goes for the football when we play ball. He has a football throwing arm too. When he tries to use a basketball he can't seem to throw it right, but when he uses a football that ball is outta there!

Gavin is our basketball player. He loves basketball. He especially loves to play with his daddy. They will go upstairs and play and Shane likes to tease him a lot while he tries making shots. He always tries to steal it from him and gavin loves it. They have tons of fun shooting together. I can't wait to see what the future holds for these boys and their sports.Here is Shane going after Gavin trying to steal the ball from him.And amid all this chaos we have Gavin who knows how to tease and antagonize...he knows how to get Tanner really upset. He will make funny faces at him and it really gets Tanner upset. All we hear in the other room is tanner getting upset. Gavin is silent. We come in and tanner says "Gavin!" and points to him and Gavin just has this mischevious smile on his face.

Tanner knows how to "try" to get Gavin in trouble...he will scream and pretend cry and say "Gavin did it". Half of the time Gavin didn't really do anything.

Gavin knows how to push my buttons. Tanner knows how to try to win my heart. If Gavin doesn't get his way he starts whining a lot. The other day he started jumping up and down, sort of acting like a baby. Eeeww, that drives me nuts. Seriously. So, i put him in timeout. Then he starts fake crying really loud. Eeeewww, he knows EXACTLY how to get to me even more! Then i send him to his room. Tanner on the other hand... most of the time when i tell him to do something he says "okay mommy." AAaahhh. I need one of the boys to be that way otherwise i might think i am doing something wrong as a mother. :)

Yesterday they decided to play in a pile of muddy water. They were playing in the backyard and i slipped away for a moment and when i came back they had mud up the pants and all over their shoes.

Tanner likes to destroy things. Gavin likes things to be perfect. Tanner likes to throw toys down the stair and bring the whole toyroom down. Gavin tells tanner, "Tanner, we have to keep the toys upstairs...we need to keep the downstairs clean. Mom i am trying to tell Tanner that we don't want to make a mess." I know who will have a clean bedroom and who will have the dirty bedroom when they have their own rooms one day.

Gavin knows he will get in trouble if he does certain things, soooo he uses his little brother and has his do it for him. He tells Tanner to do it for him and Tanner falls for it. So they both get in trouble. :)

They eat a lot. Oh my they can eat a lot. It is amazing. Gavin can eat a lot, but he doesn't eat like he is a starving child. He takes his time. Tanner eats a lot and eats like he IS a starving child. He shoves food in his mouth and sometimes he puts so much in at one time that he starts to choke.

I told Shane the other day "Shane, when this baby comes i am going to be severely outnumbered." 4 boys to 1 girl. I never in my wildest dreams thought that i would have 3 boys and no girls. Life is full of surprises.

{Tanner and poop}

Tanner has had a few accidents since he has learned to go to the bathroom on the toilet. The thing is, sometimes i feel like we have a dog in our house. Tanner pooped his pants one time and i hear Gavin say "eeeewwww, there is poop!" I go to see and there is 2-3 pieces of poop in the corner of the baby's room. Today Tanner pooped his pants again. I must say, he does pretty good, but sometimes it is like he just forgets and poops in his pants. He came down to tell me he pooped his pants and i was surprised that there wasn't much poop in his pants. WELL, a few hours later the boys go back upstairs to play and i hear Tanner gag...at first it scares me b/c i am thinking he is choking on something, then i hear Gavin say "Mom! There is poop in the toy room!" Tanner was obviously gagging at his own mess he made. I was like, "ohhhhh, that would explain why there wasn't much in his pants this morning." I walk in the room and there is a huge chunk just sitting in the middle of the floor. I go to clean it up just like i would if a dog had pooped in the house. It is just hilarious to me how i have found pieces of poop laying around the house. Gavin never did that. Ohhhh, gotta love the differences b/w kids....it's never a dull moment. Always one surprise after another.

Oh, and a reminder....this is me about one month before my due date with Tanner. August. It was so darn hot that summer. Yes, i was miserable, can't you tell?! I look horrible. I am just glad that right now i don't feel the way i look in this picture....thank heavens. Hopefully i don't jinx myself. :)

{Easter Weekend}

Friday the boys and I went over to our friend's house. We dyed some easter eggs together, chatted, and she had some chocolate covered strawberries for me(which i realize i didn't eat them all...what was i thinking?!) I absolutely love Chocolate covered strawberries. Anyway, that started off our easter weekend. Thanks Hatsuho! :)

Saturday morning we dyed some of our own Easter eggs. I put the vinegar in with the dye pills. The boys pulled chairs up to the counter to watch. Tanner put his face a little too close and he must have gotten some of the vinegar fizz up his nose. He quickly turned away from it and started gagging. Before i know it he is gagging so much from it that he ends up puking. Didn't realize he is so sensitive to things. He is our little gagger. It is a new discovery as of a few months ago, when he discovered he didn't like seeing his own poop.

Sunday morning they got up before we did. I got up and went to the bathroom and while doing that i hear Gavin say "It's our SURPRISE!!!" We missed it, i thought. I wanted to be out there to see his face. Oh well. Gavin got candy from the Easter bunny, a Transformers hat, and a new spring colored tie. Tanner got his candy and a new church outfit, since he doesn't have one. They both looked sooooo handsome wearing their ties to church. I loved it. I will have to take pics of them in their church outfits next Sunday since i didn't get any on Easter Sunday.

For dinner we had deviled eggs, ham, cheesy potatoes, and a fruit pizza. The boys loved it. It was a great easter. No shirts allowed while dying eggs!

Their beautiful creations.

IN OTHER NEWS

I will be 31 weeks along in a few days. Facts about me and the baby right now...

1. Baby kicks and moves A TON. I don't ever recall getting irritated by the kicking and movement with the other two like i do with this one. :) He is very restless.

2. I am still feeling pretty good for the most part. Every once in awhile i start experiencing those moments where i feel like i am going to have a break down b/c i can't move. I am as slow as a turtle. I feel like a beached whale. That kind of restriction can be very frustrating, but i try to focus on other things, and good thing i have two boys to keep the focus off of me. :) They are a good distraction! :)

3. I really don't have much longer! It has gone by soooo fast, but still seems too far away. It is strange b/c i feel like it is too close, but not close enough.

4. I discovered over the weekend that i have a friable cervix(also known as a fragile cervix). It is okay though. It won't effect the rest of my pregnancy or the baby.

5. I am already tossing and turning a ton in the night. Wow, i toss and turn a lot. I just can't get comfortable.

6. The baby pushes down on my bones a lot. It is like he is burying his head in my pelvic region. Sort of like he is trying to push his way out. Believe me, he wants out....he acts like he is sick of being in there and is trying to push his way out.

7. He sticks his bum out a lot, either to the left or right of my belly button. It is hilarious b/c all of a sudden you can see this bulge, and it is his bum b/c an ultrasound confirmed that over the weekend.

8. We can't wait to meet this little boy. The boys are so excited. They ask me "When are we gonna have the baby?!!" Gavin asked me, "Is it gonna hurt you to have the baby mom?" I just said, "I hope not." Gavin is excited to help feed the baby his bottle and help change his diapers and hold him. I just wonder how long the excitement and newness of it will last. :)

9. We haven't decided on a name yet. I don't know if we ever will. It is being so difficult to find a boy name that isn't being used for a girl name these days... I think, "oh this is a good boy name, but then find out that it is being used for girl names. What is going on?! Girl names are so easy...These days parents are stealing boy names and turning them into girl names(which makes it hard to want to name your son a name that is for a girl too), You can be very creative with girl names without making them sound weird, plus there is so much variety....But then there are boy names....it is so hard to find one that isn't weird, that isn't used often, that is a strong name used strictly for boys. This is just like the clothes section for little kids....a huge section for the girls clothes and then....WHAT?...where is the boy section?.... oh, this is it? I totally would have missed it if you didn't point it out to me. :) Well, i guess i can't say all stores are this way, but i noticed myself saying this often. Or i go into the Dr.'s office and when we leave there are all kinds of stickers for the kids to choose from....they have girl one's, but what about the boy stickers? Where are the boy stickers?! They know they get to choose a sticker, but who wants to give their son a Barbie sticker?! What about the BOYS people?! Boys are human too!!! hahaha. i am just kidding around. Anyway, i just want a strong boy name that isn't being used by everyone these days. Any ideas?!

{Pictures}

Tanner and I posing for the camera. I love being in pics with my boys b/c it doesn't happen often. I want them to be able to look back and see me in a bunch of pictures with them. I say that b/c when i go through pictures of me when i was little i would love to see more pics of my mom and dad in the pictures with us. This is me at about 28 weeks. I am 30 weeks now. I can't believe it. Head on over to my photography blog and check out a recent photoshoot. http://www.ashspassion.blogspot.com/. It is of the most darling little girl ever. As most of you know, i would love to have my own studio when we are done with school. I mean, i have my own little studio now, downstairs, but i need it to be a little bit better than it is now. I am so anxious. I decided that when i do get my own studio when we are all done with school i don't want to be too busy. I like the relaxing part of being my own boss and not being too busy. So, i decided i am going to do my two favorite parts of photography. I will be a studio of just maternity and newborn. It is unfortunate that i am restricting myself, but not so unfortunate b/c i will be doing my two favorite photoshoots AND won't be as busy as if i were to take on EVERYTHING. Right?! :) Oh, i can't wait. Just wanted to share that. Just as a reminder, my photoshoots are $35.00. If you have been needing to get pictures done then give me a call. This first part of the year has been s-l-o-w, but i expected it would be. I know there are a lot of pregnant girls around here so if you want maternity pics done then let me know. If you want newborn shots done then let me know. If you want family pics i can do that too! :) I can do anything you want. One thing to think about.... If you want newborn shots i really prefer to do them in the first 2 weeks of life. They are still constantly sleeping and curled up in a little ball which makes for the kind of photos we want. If they aren't still in the stage where you can curl them up and have them sleep then the pics CAN turn out a little more awkward looking, i think, although there are some shots that we can make work. :) I will be gone for part of May. I am due June 20 with my little guy, so if you want pics you better let me know b/c i won't be taking pics for a month after i give birth to this guy. :)

{His Hands}

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFibyjcyYsE&feature=related

Click on this link if you liked Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk. This is about the Savior and it includes one of my favorite songs, His Hands.

{General Conference}

I LoVE General Conference. I loVe the feeling it invites into our lives and OuR home. It brings a new motivation into my life. It makes me want to be BeTTer at everything that i do in life. One of my FAVORITE speakers that i ALWAYS look forward to listening to is Elder Richard G. Scott. He speaks to my HeArT everytime, more than any other speaker. He knows how to speak in a way that i feel like he is talking to me. He, to me, is an amazing speaker. All of the men who speak are good speakers and touch me in some way, but He just knows how to speak in a way that penetrates my HeArT everytime. I LoVe him.

I really enjoyed Elder M. Russell Ballard's talk too. "It is hard to imagine a scenario when it would not be worthwhile to consider and learn from the experience of others." "Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it." "There are great lessons to be learned from the past. You ought to learn them so that you don't exhaust your spiritual strength repeating past mistakes and bad choices." "Time and again we see the cycle of righteousness followed by wickedness." "Righteousness followed by posperity, followed by material comforts, followed by greed, followed by pride, followed by wickedness, and a collapse of morality, until the people brought calamities upon themselves, sufficient to stir them up to humility, repentance and change."

I also really like President Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk. It was very enlightening for me. He spoke of truth's in a way that made sense...simple sense.

Elder Kevin W. Pearson's talk really hit a place in my heart as well. He talked about Faith. This is one thing that i realize the importance of and feel so strongly about. I feel like my faith has grown over the past few years in ways that i never experienced before. I feel so strongly about the need for faith and the importance of teaching my kids about faith...true faith. "If we desire more faith we must be more obedient." "Faith is a gift from God and one possessed of it can receive enormous spiritual power." "Fear and faith cannot co-exist." "We do have a choice. We get what we focus on consistently." I liked his 6 destructive D's. 1. Doubt(it comes from a lack of confidence in one's self or abilities. It is a negative emotion. Doubt leads to 2. discouragement which leads to 3.distraction which leads to a 4.lack of diligence. If not reversed this path leads to 5.disobedience which undermines the very basis of faith.) This ultimately leads to 6. Disbelief- having chosen to harden one's heart(the refusal to believe). "Challenging times require greater spiritual power."

One more that i really enjoyed was the talk given by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. He talked about Christ's atonement and Sacrifice in a way that i never thought about before. He spoke of Christ's sacrifice for us in a way that touched my heart in a different way than before. He spoke of it in a way where we could each feel and realize what our Savior went through for each of us. He gave me a new growing love for my Savior. Our Savior's example is one that can give each of us strength to get through trials, to give us hope and faith, to help us feel loved. Not only does our Savior know exactly what we go through, but he expereienced it ALL for us. He experienced it all without anger or complaint. He was betrayed by loved one's, by friends....he was nothing but loving and was crucified for it. He gives me the strength to feel like i can keep going when i go through hard times. I really love this talk.

I really enjoyed all of the talks, but these are just a few that hit me in one way or another. And of course, our Beloved Prophet's talk at the end of General Conference. His words of advice, warning, and comfort always touch us in a way to where we know the importance of what he is saying. I am so grateful for General Conference and for the leaders of our church.

More quotes...

I love a good quote. I saw this one and totally thought of Shane and how i have this kind of guy...

“Find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will lie under the stars and listen to your heartbeat, or will stay awake just to watch you sleep... wait for the boy who kisses your forehead, who wants to show you off to the world when you are in sweats, who holds your hand in front of his friends, who thinks you're just as pretty without makeup on. One who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares and how lucky his is to have you.... The one who turns to his friends and says, 'that's her'."

Maybe it is cheesy, but its true.

Another quote i really like...

"Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof."

And i love this one...

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference."

I like these quotes on Pro-life...

"Ive noticed that everyone who is for abortion is already born." - Ronald Reagan

"It is a poverty that a "child must die", So that you may live as you wish... - Mother Teresa

"There are two victims in every abortion: a dead baby and a dead conscience." - Mother Teresa