New Year's Resolution

So every year I make a New Year Resolution and for about a week I'm really good at sticking to it, then I get lazy or busy (usually lazy) and forget all about it until the next New Year. So this year I'm posting it in my blog as a constant reminder to me. My goal this year (like most) is to lose all the pregnancy weight that I put on from BOTH pregnancies. It's time to get back into my pre-kids clothes that I still have stored in my closet. Wish me luck because I'm definitely gonna need it :)

I hope everyone has a safe and awesome New Year's Eve tonight!! Well I'll be back to post again in 2010!

Christmas Day...

This year our Christmas morning started off a little different than years before, Dublin had a terrible time sleeping Christmas Eve, we think because his face hurt from smashing into a toy train and hard wood floors at the same time :( So he had a bruise on his forehead and between his eyebrows (so in the pictures it's NOT a uni brow it's a bruise). But when we finally woke him up at 9:30 he was thrilled to see a new bike waiting for him!

He climbed right on and knew what to do.
He didn't even have time to put jammies on before he jumped on for a ride :)
This year for breakfast we had my parent's and my two youngest sisters come over to our house, we had our traditional Christmas breakfast of quiche, orange and Cinnamon rolls, bacon and orange juice. I have to say it was delicious!!! After breakfast we started opening our stockings and Dublin was just amazed at all the little things he had to play with.

He loved this swirly light thing.

After we all opened our stockings Dublin started opening his presents, some how we knew that Santa was bringing him a bike and so we got him a helmet and pads to go with it.

After opening the helmet he just HAD to wear it and didn't want to take it off. He actually wore it while opening most of his presents haha. What a weird kid, he must get that from his dad :)

Such a stud!!

Opening gift with his grandpa.

He needed help from grandpa with this one.

Getting ready for a bike ride with daddy and grandpa.

Out for a ride, he is just too adorable!!

After my parents left we hung around the house and relaxed for the rest of the day, then later that evening Steve's mom and her husband came over to exchange presents and we got to hang out with them for a little while. Dublin had fun showing off his new toys and opening more presents. I loved our Christmas this year!! And I can't wait for next year!!

Christmas Eve

Sprinkling the Reindeer food on the grass.
Reindeer food package.

Caitlin opening her gifts from "Steve".

Ella knew just what to do when opening her gifts.

Opening his gifts with Aunt Caitlin.

Look at what Aunt Courtney got him!

Daddy helping him open his gift from great grandma & grandpa.

Courtney and Landon with his new Cars!!

Cameron peeking over his present.

Well this Christmas was really awesome, we had our whole family (except Jer who had to work) together for the first time in a long time. It was really fun to see all the sisters and their families. We decided to do Christmas on Christmas Eve this year because of sharing families with in-laws, so we all headed over to my parents house early Christmas Eve to hang out and snack (yummy stuffed mushrooms!) Plus I think we all really wanted the kids to hang out and play for as long as possible, I've been telling Dublin for weeks that Ella was coming to play with him and he was really excited.

My Mommy made her delicious pork loin with cranberry sauce and all the other delicious things that normally go with it and we all pigged out and hung out for the rest of the night. After getting done with dinner we decided it was time to open the presents, it was SO much fun watching the little ones opening their presents and trying to steal the other kids presents :) After that we decided it was time to take Dublin home since it was almost 10 pm and he hadn't napped at all that day, plus he still had to put the reindeer food out. Unfortunately by the time we got home Dublin was passed out and wouldn't wake up and I made Steve sprinkle the reindeer food on the front lawn. I really wish Dublin could have done it himself since he was soo excited when Sister White made it for him, maybe next year.

Anyways we had an awesome Christmas/Christmas Eve with the family and I can't wait for next year!!!

Baby girl McClure

Holy Moly I just looked at my little baby countdown ticker and I only have 18 days until she gets here!!! OMG!! As much as my body is ready to get her out of there I'm not sure if I'm totally ready for her to be here. Going from one kid to two is a big deal, I hope I can handle it...and I hope Dublin takes an interest in her. He is definetly a mommy's boy right now so I hope he can learn to share. Oh well she's coming soon and there's not much I can do now except sit back and enjoy it.

Christmas time...

Picking out a tree in the freezing cold!
Coloring at the Creche.

BIG smile for mommy.

Family picture next to the donkey.

Kodak moment.

In totally awe.

My boys.

Well with Christmas almost upon us I've been WAY too busy to blog :( This year we've been really behind on everything, mostly because so much is happening in such a short amount of time for us. We finally got both of our Christmas trees up and decorated, we had a lot of fun picking out our tree this year but we did it as fast as possible since it was freezing out side!! Once we picked out our tree Dublin and I ran to sit in the warm car and watch Little Einstein's while Steve took care of cutting, netting and paying for the tree. After that we were definitely in need of some yummy hot cocoa in front of the fire, instead we decided we couldn't wait and started to decorate the tree.

We also had a blast going to our Christmas creche and looking at the thousands of different nativity scenes. It was really beautiful and a lot of fun. Dublin had a blast making an ornament and coloring in the children's activity room, then Grandpa and him played some soccer and he was hooked! He did not want to leave that ball behind! Haha

But one of my favorite things that we did this month was our annual trip to Candy Cane Lane... every house on the block decorates, and they go all out! It really is amazing to see. Dublin just loved seeing all the lights and different decorations every time he saw something new he would say "oh whoa!" He was just in awe the whole time we were there, he kept trying to to touch all the different decorations that moved. I can't wait to go back next year :)

Now we're just prepping for Christmas and New Years, I finally got all the Christmas gifts and got them wrapped and put under the tree. I bought everything that we need for our big Christmas Eve dinner with family and Christmas morning breakfast! It feels good to check all these things off my check list.

And to make everything even better we finally finished painting the baby nursery!!! Now all I need to do is put all her stuff in there and decorate and I'm done!!! This is all thanks to Caitlin who has spent multiple days over here doing the things that I can no longer do, so THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH CAITLIN!!! I'll post some pictures of the room when it's all done, now I need to get back to work and stop blogging.

Wait for it...

Okay so I actually have some worthwhile things to blog about but it's going to have to wait until tomorrow when I'm not exhausted! Also Caitlin is coming back over tomorrow afternoon which means I can actually have time to blog without Dublin trying to type for me :) I love having family so close!!!

Sketchy Santa's

Ummm eewwww!!!
Why would you let that even hold your child?!
Creepy!

Santa and his nice face tat!!

Nice shades black Santa.

So there are only 10 days left until Christmas and I'm still only HALF way done shopping!!! I know I'm such a slacker this year, my Christmas cards have been filled out and addressed just waiting to be put in the mail for 3 weeks now but I still haven't done it. These days I'm lucky if I put make-up on and get dressed in something besides jammies during the day...oh well I'm over it. On a positive note I finally finished decorating for Christmas and we bought our real tree! So both trees are up and decorated, now if I could just keep the cats and Dublin away from them! Actually Dublin does pretty good it's just my stupid cats think it's a new cat tree! So Fox's fat butt tries to eat his way threw the branches before attacking the tree!!

Well with all the bumming around the house that I've been doing I found a new funny website to visit call sketchysantas.com, it's not as good as peopleofwalmart.com but I still enjoy it! Here are some of my favorites!! Enjoy!!

I love Christmas time...

pic came out crappy but it's pretty in person.

I think we're going to add some more stuff to the mantle.

snowy village.

poisonous plant put up as high as possible!

our entry way

I just love the feeling of Christmas time!! The cold weather and all the Christmas music, I love seeing houses all lit up and decorated. One of my favorite things to do is just walk around the mall and see everyone Christmas shopping, with the music in the background it's very Christmasy (did I spell that right?). Unfortunately this year I am WAY behind on my Christmas shopping, I think I have like two weeks left and I'm only half way done with my list, which doesn't include Steve or Dublin!! Yikes!!

Also something I love to do at Christmas time is go to our church's Christmas Creche, it was beautiful this year!! We walked around with my parents and sisters and did the puzzle they give you, Dublin made an ornament for the tree and we even bought a poinsettia this year! Only to find out after that it's poisonous to children and pets...so I think next year we'll buy some fake ones.

And finally we are almost done decorating for Christmas, I say almost because we still haven't bought our real tree to decorate yet and it has been way to cold and windy for Steve to hang the Christmas lights. I told him not to worry about it because I don't want the wind to blow him off the roof and have to go to Urgent Care for a few hours. As long as the inside is decorated and cozy I don't care about the outside. Well Merry Christmas everyone and enjoy the Holiday season :)

Also I'll upload more decoration pictures when we're all done decorating.

Slacking...

So I know I'm not the best at keeping my blog up to date everyday, but I'm really not interesting enough to do that. Also I've been really busy these last few weeks and haven't had the time that I wanted to blog, so I'm gonna try and get it all in right now while I have a few mins.

The other day I woke up with this intense urge to clean the entire house, stupid nesting, anyone that knows me knows that that never happens! I cleaned parts of this house that I don't think have been cleaned since the house was built...yucky!! Now I'm trying to keep it clean until my girl arrives but with two messy boys it seems impossible!

Although I guess what could have started it was that show Hoarder's, I watched it the other night and was soooo grossed out! How can people live like that? Eewwww! Steve thinks I'm crazy for watching that show but I have to say it makes me want to keep our house clean, and it's kinda like a car accident I can't help but want to watch no matter how bad it is.

Some better news is that we have been making great progress on the nursery!! It is looking sooo cute, just one more wall to paint and then putting the new trim in and we're done!! Well then the decorating starts, which at the rate I'm going will be up until the day before she gets here. I'll upload some pictures of the room later.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Miss Ella Bella!!! We really wish we could be with you to celebrate your special day, I guess we'll just have to wait a few more weeks to see you.

I love you Ella Bella!!!

Baby McClure Update

Just a quick baby update. I had my 33 week appt today and we got to do another ultrasound, I got to see her adorable little face and then Dr. Ngo told me she weighs 5lbs 1oz right now!! OMG I still have more than five weeks to go...I think she's going for biggest baby title in the family. Cameron took smallest baby title from Dublin so she must be trying to take the biggest baby title from Ella :) Also I was so proud of myself I only gained 1 pound since my last appt, even after all that delicious Thanksgiving food!!

Busy Busy Busy!!

It feels like forever since I've blogged and I've actually had some good things to blog about, just no time to do it. So here is a small recap of the last week.
We had an awesome Thanksgiving!! First we went to Steve's Grandma's house and snacked on food (we had to save room for the big dinner to come!) and mingled with everyone for a little while. Dublin had fun playing with his cousin Jocelyn and running around in the backyard, when we would let him. After munching on snacks for awhile we decided it was time to head out to my family's house for more food, and I have to say my mom really outdid herself this year :) I hope one day that I can make an awesome feast like she does.
Dublin had a BLAST once we got to my parent's house because he got to see his Grandpa (his favorite), play outside all he wanted, play with his cousin Landon and see all of his family. We also got to see and hang out with Elder Garcia and Elder Ball from the Littlerock ward, it's always fun when they're around. This Thanksgiving was great, we had delicious food, good friends and our awesome family all together :)
Then there was the infamous Black Friday, a day that all the women in our family look forward to. We had made a great plan the night before, Caitlin and I were going to Target to get everything for the "group" and my mom, Courtney and Aubrey (yes even Aubs got in on it!) would go to Wal-Mart and get the stuff there. Well like every Black Friday we stayed up way to late doing nothing and had to get up at 3am!! Yes I know we're crazy. I pretty much had to drag Caitlin out of bed so that we could go wait in line in the freezing cold outside of Target. After getting the worlds worst hot chocolate at Starbucks we braved the cold and started making our game plan for once we got inside.
Luckily we got everything that we wanted at Target and then decided it wad time for some hard earned breakfast at ihop. So we all meet up at ihop and had the worst breakfast ever! Then it was time for more shopping we hit up a few more store and then it was onto Joann's where they had adorable fabric on sale for $1.49 a yard, I just couldn't pass that up. By the time we had everything we needed and wanted we looked like walking zombies, it was close to lunch time and we were dead on our feet but we still had Pier One to go to. So we dragged our zombie booties over there and finished off our shopping at one of my favorite stores. All in all I would say this Black Friday was a success! Aubrey even spotted some creatures of Wal-Mart!!
On Saturday I ran some errands with my boys and then I go t to hang out with Missy, Lulu and little miss Ruby. Of course we had a blast and it was so good to see them after so long, I can't wait until next time. I have to say I LOVED my Thanksgiving weekend, it was exactly what I wanted.

Feeling Crafty...

my new toy!
I think they're adorable!!

So as a early Christmas presents Steve bought me a new sewing machine! I was so excited to finally be able to start on some of the projects I've been wanting to do. I told Steve I was going to make some burp cloths for the new baby and the response he gave me was priceless, mostly because the last time I attempted to sew a blanket it came out horrible and he knows that I took two different sewing classes at the college. He looked at me and said "you've taken classes so where did all your sewing skills go?" I was really feeling the love, but it just made me more determined to prove him wrong and show him I can make somethings. Anyways I think they came out really nice and so does my hubby :) Can't wait to start on my next project!!

Before I was a mom...

Before I was a mom...
I made and ate hot meals.
I had unstained clothing.
I had quiet conversations on the phone.



Before I was a mom...
I slept as late as I wanted.
And never worried about how late I got into bed.
I brushed my hair and my teeth everyday.



Before I was a mom...
I cleaned my house each day.
I never tripped over toys or forgot words to lullabies.



Before I was a mom...
I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunisations.



Before I was a mom...
I had never been puked on,
pooped on, spat on,
chewed on, peed on,
or pinched by tiny fingers.



Before I was a mom...
I had complete control of my mind,
my thoughts.
my body, and my time.
I slept all night.



Before I was a mom...
I never held down a screaming child,
so that doctors could do test,
or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.



Before I was a mom...
I never held a sleeping baby just because
I didn't want to put it down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces,
when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a mom.



Before I was a mom...
I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important.



Before I was a mom...
I had never risen in the middle of the night.
Every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never know the warmth,
the joy, the love,
the heartache, the wonderment,
or the satisfaction of being a mom.


I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much before I was a mom!!

Author: Unknown


this is definitely one of my favorite poems about being a mom :)

It's Offical...

Our baby girl will be here on January 11, 2010 at 7:30 am. We had a Dr. appt yesterday and decided that that would be the day we welcome her into our family. so everyone can finally marked their calendars :) I only wish that everyone could actually come and visit her at the hospital (thanks a lot stupid swine flu!!!!)

Nursery Progress

Definitely pink!

What a goofy smile!

Well I'm happy to say that we FINALLY started on the nursery, I thought for sure she was going to be here before we finished her room. Now I know that most projects usually end up being more involved and frustrating then planned and her nursery was definitely no different. I'll spare all the little details but it started out with what I thought was just going to be just a paint job...until I hear lots of demolition going on! I walk into her room to find all the baseboards ripped out and some other minor things, I just couldn't get passed the fact that her room was looking worse than when I left it 15 mins ago! I guess that's what happens when you leave your husband alone in a nursery that needs fixing up. Luckily he did go to Lowe's and he purchased everything that he needed to fix the room, also he did start painting and now that it's dried I like the color, when he first started I wanted to cry the color was so bright and ugly. Now I actually think it matches perfectly and I'm really excited to get the whole room done! I'll keep everyone updated on how long it takes Steve to actually fix the nursery, I'm just hoping it's done before the end of the year!

Murder Mystery Night

The real murderer!
He walked around saying "bang bang!"

The drunken Mayor and South Side Sal.

Rosie Marie, Molly Moll (floozy!) and Cy Ramsey

Cindy and Molly.

Cindy and Bernie.

On Friday night Steven and I went to a Murder Mystery Dinner at my parents house. My little sister Caitlin and her friends Zack and Brian threw a 1920's Murder Mystery Dinner and it was a blast!! Steven was Bernie Booze the bootlegger and I was Cindy Butt (ha ha funny I know) the cigarette girl. How did the pregnant lady end up being the cigarette girl? Anyways it was really fun to try and solve the murder of Notorious Nick, the man I loved who left me for Molly Moll a floozy girl (played by my little sister Caitlin :)). Of course at the end of the night no one guessed right who the murderer was, I thought for sure it was the Mayor but it was the Chief of Police! It was a lot of fun and I would love to do another one.