Moncur Family

So yes, for you Blogger/non-Facebook friends out there, we are having a boy. Most definitely a boy, he was not shy. We are very excited, and thought all along this would be a boy. Mostly because I was so much less sick with this one than with my girls. When we first got married, Mitch predicted we would have all girls. When we found out Kate was a girl too, I asked him if he was disappointed and he said we could have all girls and he'd be fine. He really, really loves his girls. But when the doctor said this was a boy, he had a pretty huge smile on his face! Now I am trying to wrap my head around all of the boy stuff we'll need, since everything we own that is kid-related is pink. Even our Legos are pink. So here's to a little more blue around our house!

I must face the fact that today being December 22, I am not going to get my Christmas cards mailed in time. I know you will all be devastated. Here is the card that my sister Avree made for our family. Maybe next year I will not be such a procrastinator!

So Mitch had a little training in one of the most lovely spots you could imagine to vacation in December. That's right... Chicago! Okay, so the weather maybe wasn't ideal, but we still had a blast. The point being... NO KIDS! We dropped the kids off at my parents' house in St. George and flew out of Vegas. My sister Avree was down there as well to help hold down the fort. She has decided not to have any more kids forever, ha ha. Here are some of the things we did:

The first night there was our 7th anniversary. We always eat at a seafood restaurant for our anniversary and we were not disappointed! We ate at the best seafood restaurant I have ever been to called Shaw's Crab Shack. They gave Mitch this sweet lobster bib. The food was seriously amazing.


The next night we went to Wicked. This was Mitch's idea, he even got the tickets for me. It was at the Cadillac Theater and was way fun. The only embarrassing part was Mitch singing along so loud to every song (ha ha, for those of you who know Mitch, you know this was not really the case).


Of course, sampling some Chicago deep-dish pizza!


Ha ha, I'm not sure why I'm standing so weird, but I was so freezing I don't think I could feel my legs! Downtown Chicago is really pretty.


There was some great shopping, great food, and well, we just relaxed and enjoyed our 3 days there. Thanks so much to Avree and my mom for watching our girls. It was a much-needed little getaway!

All of these pictures are stolen straight from my sister's blog. I happen to have forgotten my camera (surprise), so luckily she took some cute pictures. We had a great Thanksgiving. My parents came up here and we ate at my sister's house (I had to work for a few hours in the morning). I made my first ever pumpkin pies. The great thing about my family's Thanksgiving is we like to keep the pie to person ratio about 1:1. The pies are pretty much the most important part of the meal. We had several pumpkin pies, banana cream, chocolate cream, blueberry, cherry, and apple. Avree, my mom, Callie, and I all contributed a bit to the meal and it turned out pretty good if I do say so myself!








This picture cracks me up. Spencer already ate before the actual meal. So he sat here in the living room by himself watching TV. He looks like such an outcast! Then he came and dumped a bazillion goldfish crackers in Kate's tray and she loved it!


The Saturday after Thanksgiving we decorated our tree. Marin was DYING to decorate it and couldn't wait for that "boring" Thanksgiving holiday to be over with so we could put up our Christmas decorations. She loves our tree, especially when it's dark and just the lights are on. I've always loved that too. We watched some Christmas movies by the tree that night and had hot chocolate and popcorn. It was a fun day!
You can see that little Kate quickly began un-decorating the tree. Ha ha, we'll see how long before this tree is completely undecorated where she can reach!

This last week my Grandpa Sandberg (my dad's dad) passed away. Our family traveled down to Southern Utah to attend his funeral this weekend. It really wasn't a sad, sad funeral or death because my grandpa's health was failing and his quality of life was really declining. My grandma, the absolute love of his life, passed away just under 4 years ago and he seemed a little lost without her. During the funeral some wonderful women from his ward watched all of our nursery-age children. So I was able to really listen to the speakers and have no distractions. As I sat there listening and thinking of my own memories I truly realized how blessed I was to have such a good example of a man as my grandpa. He was just solid, and good. He worked hard, he loved his wife and treated her like a queen, he loved his family and put them first, he was patriotic to his core, he served and took care of other people, he had a hilarious sense of humor, he was kind and slow to anger, in fact my dad or any of us have never heard him curse or lose his temper. He was just that good, and I sure loved him. He and my grandma loved to dance. Like really loved to dance. They were great square dancers and took every opportunity they could to go square dancing. They wore the matching fancy outfits and just loved it. They took me with them several times and my grandpa danced with me. My grandma used to let me dress up in her older square dancing dresses. So when dad called and told me my grandpa had passed away that morning, I thought to myself, "Oh good, my grandma and grandpa are square dancing in heaven now." What an amazing reunion!

Since I officially "announced" on Facebook, I'll get my blogging done too. We are thrilled to be expecting baby #3! I am done with the morning sickness and can now function normally. I am 17 weeks and the due date is May 2 or 8 (ultrasound will confirm in a few weeks). Also we'll find out if we are capable of making anything other than girls. I'll keep you posted. For now we are so excited either way!

So here is our best attempt at getting a picture of all 3 grandkids on Halloween:


2 grandkids proved only slightly easier


Our family picture turned out fine, except for Mitch's blinding Hurley logo. I'm too lazy to Photoshop it out. Mitch carved our one jack-o-lantern. I was impressed.


And yes, it was pouring rain. We still trick-or-treated and Marin loved it. We took Kate to a few houses, only because she insisted. We had a ginormous umbrella that helped out a lot. My parents came up from St. George for the weekend and the whole family had a great time. We missed Blake though, party pooper! If you couldn't tell, Marin was a witch and Kate was a ladybug. Mitch and I were tired parents (it was a long day). But overall we sure had a great Halloween 2010!

It's time for a new post. I've got the venting out of my system. The problem is, I have nothing exciting to post about. I am too lazy to upload my recent pictures. As I was pondering what to post about, my mind naturally wandered to the subject of candy... specifically Halloween candy. Several weeks ago at Sam's Club I bought a 120 piece package of candy bars. It is now gone. It was a mixed candy bar package, and the average calorie amount per candy bar was around 65 calories. Now assuming I ate about 75% of the candy bars (because I did... or more), that's 5,850 calories. If 3500 calories equals one pound of fat.... Yep! That's where the 2 lbs I recently gained came from!

Well here I go. It's been awhile. I've been in a sort of a blogging slump, if you will. Last night Mitch said to me, "You have really let your blog go lately." I said I didn't even know he knew our blog existed, let alone read it. He said, "How else can I make sure you don't have a secret blogging boyfriend?" How did he guess? Anyway, I decided today is the day to catch up. Here are some things that have happened in the past few months:

1. Kate grew up! The little stinker. Her hair turned blond and she started talking up a storm. Where did my baby go?

P.S. Mitch picked out her outfit.

2. Six siblings, their families, and parents who are living in six different states got together for a little party in Yellowstone. It was a blast!

Marin wasn't cooperating for the picture, but Old Faithful was. Good Old Faithful. It always comes through.


4. We boated... A LOT.


I learned how to wakeboard. I can't seem to find any pictures of it though. And maybe if I wakeboarded every day for 10 lifetimes, I'd be as good as this guy:


5. Marin broke her arm. I blogged about this already. Her final cast comes off in 2 days, hooray!


6. Marin started preschool. She loves it!


And that's all I'm willing to blog right now. I'm done for today. I will try to be a better blogger, and post lots of hot pictures of myself for my special blogging boyfriend :)

Can you tell I can't find my camera cord that uploads pictures into my computer? I have pictures from our Wyoming/Yellowstone trip, 4th of July, swim lessons, county fair, and more, but they sit on my camera. No pictures in my posts because I've got to find the dang thing. We had a bit of trauma this weekend, but all is well. We had our first broken bone in the family. Marin fell off the neighbor's trampoline and broke both of the little bones in her forearm on Saturday night. After some crying and several hours at Instacare, the x-rays confirmed it and she got her temporary sling/cast. She was such a brave little thing and didn't cry any more until it really started hurting in the middle of the night (of course). But after that night, she's been such a tough little thing. We get her PINK cast on Thursday, we had to wait for the swelling to go down. Now I'm just trying to keep her from jumping on rocks, riding her bike, and swinging (all 3 things she showed me she is still able to do before I forbade her). I'll feel better about letting her do more when she gets a harder cast!

{insert the cute picture I took of her with her sling}

Conversation with Marin tonight during scripture reading:

Me: Jesus can protect people. Jesus can do anything.

Marin: That's because he's magic-- and Santa. Santa Claus and Jesus are the same age. Santa Claus is my favorite man!

So I tend to be a procrastinator. It's in my genes (ask my dad, ha ha). It's ridiculous actually, because I'm also one of those people who wakes up around 4 a.m. (with Kate's help) and then thinks about all of the things I haven't gotten done that are nagging at me. It's not the doing the task that gets me, it's the starting. Like cleaning my garage. I finally just went for it and now I'm so glad I did. So yesterday I felt especially motivated (we had just returned home from a vacation and I had finished unpacking, hooray!) so I made a Procrastination List. As I type this I realize I should have titled it something differently like "Stop Procrastinating" or "Don't Procrastinate" List but oh well. My Procrastination List has 18 items on it that I have been procrastinating. They range from the easy ones like getting a hair cut and a large hymn book for my calling, to bigger ones like getting an ancestor's name temple ready (I have no clue where to even start) and getting my food storage up to date. I am trying to do one each day, and to at least start the couple of big ones. I've made progress. I already feel better. Why didn't I start this sooner? Oh yeah, I'm a procrastinator. I procrastinated starting my Procrastination List. If any of you are chronic procrastinators I encourage you to make a list. Title it what you want, but as soon as you start tackling the things you dread most your life will improve. I promise, it's very liberating!

Ever since Marin started talking she has said the funniest things. I know all kids say hilarious things, but when they're your own, it's even funnier. At the end of the day Mitch and I sort of "report" to each other the funny stuff our kids have done that day. Lately we've been laughing so hard over stuff Marin has said, she's such an observant, cute little girl. Here are a few I will share:

- She came home from church and said, "Mom, we had a story about Moromi (not a typo, she calls him that and I can't bring myself to correct her) and about Jesus and Mary-- she's Jesus' girlfriend." Wow, I was almost as proud at that moment as when we were at the St. George temple nativity scene at Christmas and she ran up and yelled, "Oh mom! There's baby Joseph Smith!"

- She and her friend went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood last night in their dress-ups. Mitch asked them if they'd had much luck. Marin said, "Not really." He asked them how much candy they got and she said, "Not very much." Mitch asked how much and she finally admitted, "none." But I think they scored a Sqeeze-it.

- Her prayers have always been hilarious. The other night though, she blessed "all the people who tell her she sings beautiful."

That's all I can think of right now and Kate just woke up for the day so I better get her. Probably my favorite part of the day is getting Kate after she wakes up because she's so happy to see me. So I'll get to it....

I was a little nervous at first, can you tell?


Usually I just rock the all-important position of "flag holder"


Almost....


Almost....


And BAM, I'm up on the first try and surfing! Incredible if you know my usual athletic ability. Everyone on the boat was in shock.


And I actually STAYED UP for quite awhile. And then I fell hard.


And then everyone (including me) waited to see if it was just an incredible fluke and if I would get up again. And I DID. And my family and husband were in shock again. And I actually had fun. I've got a ways to go, and it will probably be years before I could be comfortable enough to do this:


But I'll get there!

And this, just because it's cool and my husband is a hot wakeboarder:

(And don't worry, my enthusiasm is bound to wear off and I'll stop posting a bazillion boating pictures)

Oh yeah, and P.S. Thanks to my awesome sister-in-law Callie for taking all of our boating pictures!

Don't be fooled by the title. This story will get more exciting. So to begin my story, I'll just say I love my patio. When we first moved into this house Mitch insisted on getting quite a large patio. Our nice neighbor helped us do the concrete work and told Mitch how to prep for it, but Mitch and I shoveled and smoothed out an entire dump-truck load of gravel in one night, and Mitch did a lot of work himself. I was sore in muscles I didn't know I had. I asked Mitch many times if we really needed such a large patio, but he insisted. This said, I've really enjoyed our huge patio. We grill all the time and eat outside and I was just starting to think about some nice patio furniture I wanted to get. I recently finished planting my hydrangeas next to the patio, and the day lilies are getting big and blooming. It's quite lovely back there. But alas, I won't be spending as much time lounging on my patio this summer because of this:

Yes, this is the lovely new occupant of our patio. Mitch was probably diabolically planning this the whole time. But fun times have already been had in this beauty and there will be many more to come. So I'll give up my patio for now.






By the way, we're still taking suggestions on what to name this boat!

My girls and I just spent the past week in St. George. When we left Logan it was rainy and cold and too cold to play outside. We got to St. George and it was 110 degrees, and too hot to play outside. Gotta love my timing. We kicked off the week with my 10 year high school class reunion. Oh my. I have to admit, I was a little nervous for this event. I'm not quite sure what I expected, but it was way better. I had a lot of fun. It was very well planned and it was so fun to see tons of people I hadn't seen in 10 years. I moved to USU the fall after I graduated high school and have not been back, so it was great to see old friends. Oh yeah, and the food was good too. I'm all about the food, he he. Thanks a lot to all of the people who spent tons of time planning the event. I, of course, did not bring my camera, so maybe I'll be able to steal other people's pictures from Facebook or blogs.

We lounged the rest of the week with my mom and dad while Mitch was working in Logan. We swam a lot, ate a lot of Skinny Cows (low-fat icecream sandwiches for those of you not in the know), and enjoyed the sunny weather.

Mitch came back down on Thursday night and the weather cooled down just for him. We had a family reunion with a ton of my mom's family on Saturday that was so fun and now we're home. Can you believe I brought my camera to St. George and didn't take even ONE picture? The only pictures on my camera are of a used boat that Mitch stopped to look at on the way home. Darn it, that boat is not nearly as cute as my kids! I'll be better next time!

So Marin had her very first dance recital this past Saturday. She has been anticipating this event all year long and I think it lived up to her expectations! She was totally adorable. She took her dancing very seriously. Oh, it was so cute! She had a dress rehearsal in the morning and then the real deal at night. Her grandma came all the way from Wyoming and "Grandma and Grandpa St. George" (what she calls them) came as well. No pictures or filming were allowed at the night recital, so my brother Jaren and his wife Callie sat through the entire dress rehearsal to take pictures with their fancy camera. Don't you think that's love? It lasted 3 hours on a Saturday and they stayed the whole time! Marin was a trooper for those three hours, but during her 3rd and last dance, she decided she'd had enough. She untucked her shirt and got this ticked off look on her face, then stopped dancing. Her teacher had to escort her off the stage. Luckily she didn't do that at the night performance. Here are a few of the pictures Callie took (I love them so much Callie, thanks a million!):







After the marathon rehearsal we all went up the canyon and had a picnic. We are lucky to live just a few miles from all of this beauty!



And then my all-time favorite 2 pictures were Marin picking her nose and post nose-pick. Love them!

Thank you to all of my family who came and made Marin's first recital so fun!