I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving this year. This is the part where you get bored while I ramble about things I'm thankful for. Should I do it??? Okay fine. Last Sunday Scott and I had to give talks in our church about Thanksgiving, and gratitude. We both had to talk at least 20 minutes since our talks were supposed to last for the entire meeting, so we both had to do a lot of research in order to find things to ramble about for 20 minutes each. The good news is, that it helped us both be extra aware of the things we're both thankful for this year. The bad news? I think it broke my pregnant body to stand there in heels for 20 minutes and try not to pass out, but oh well. One of them (things Scott and I are grateful for) is each other. Everybody's story of how they met is different and unique. Ours is one that we both know we were led to. We both know that God worked things and circumstances out in both of our lives to help us find each other. Throughout our friendship and eventual courtship, we were both given continual promptings about each other. When we were still just friends, Scott would pop in my head a random times like when I was praying, and I would pop in his at random times like when he was taking the sacrament at church. For both of us those random moments surprised us because we'd never thought of each other in that way before. Our patriarchal blessings also talk about each other, and one line in particular is almost word for word identical when it comes to criteria for choosing our spouse. I'm a stubborn person, and when I was young and dating I was also easily distracted and marriage was the last thing on my mind. If it wasn't for those random moments when Heavenly Father basically told me to pay attention to him and him to me, I would have never known what an amazing friend I'd have for the rest of my life. Here is our first thanksgiving together...back in 2004 when we were young and and first in love. We look drunk. We probably were...but drunk on being in love and all twitterpated: This of course led to the other thing I'm most thankful for this year, Family. My siblings and parents, and of course Scott's siblings and his parents too. It's led to so many awesome memories over the years.
2005 Thanksgiving season (Las Vegas style): 2008 Spending time with my Mom's side of the fam: Thanksgiving 2010...the first year Scott and I had our own little Thanksgiving with our kids in our townhouse last year: Of course I have to post pics of THIS year or I'm an idiot. This year we hosted Thanksgiving for my side of the family in our new home. My Parents and brothers did an amazing job at helping prepare the food, set things up and clean up since my big, pregnant body has been handicapping me lately. I LOVE FAMILY!!!! I love that my family has gotten bigger ever since I met Scott. I love that I have both his and my sides of the family to spend weekends, holidays and random craziness with. The best thing about having a bigger family since marriage?
My kids. Obviously.
This right here is what makes my home and life complete:
The world needs more kids dancing in living rooms!!!
EVERYone told me and Scott to wait to have kids when we got married. They all provided a long list of good and logical reasons from school, to finances to the fact that newlyweds should just enjoy each other company first without adding to it...why it would be best. We listened to them for about 4 months, and than did exactly what we once again, felt that Heavenly Father wanted us to do. People ask me to this day if getting pregnant 4 months into my marriage was an accident. Nope. How could THIS face ever not exist???? Yeah right. Look at those eyes!! (DISCLAIMER for the easily offended: I'm not saying that everyone should do what we did...that decision was something between Scott, me, and our Heavenly Father and we chose to listen to him instead of what everyone else said. Scott and I have always had a very special and unique relationship, and what's made it work over the last seven years from hooking up in the first place to where we are now. Blocking out everyone else's advice, and making our own decisions with our Heavenly Father is what has helped us to grow as a couple, and stick together during the hard times. Both Scott and I are very stubborn, persistent and passionate individuals. Had we not listened to the promptings that came from Heavenly Father regardless of what seemed logical at the time, I don't know where either of us would be today. Allowing God to control our lives when it was time to make tough decisions has been the glue that has kept us in love, kept us together, and made things work, and you know what? They've always worked out for the best, even if it wasn't always obvious at first. Anyway this is MY blog and this is what I'M thankful for. If that bugs you than you missed the point.)
Of course I have to give a shout out to my temporal, worldly things that I've been given in this world because, though they don't last, they too have been blessings. Like I said, people thought Scott and I were nuts to have kids right away on our budget, but you know what? It worked out. Somehow there was always a way to pay the bills. Same with Seth, and this year not only are we blessed with a new guy, but we got blessed with a new house in the same year. Yes the economy is bad, yes things are hard right now in our country...but this is what I came from when I lived in Bolivia for a year and a half. Streets like this: And bathrooms like this: Some places had no running water at all, some no electricity. Lots of homes made out of adobe with tin roofs. Sewage/drainage system sucked. When it rained it caused floods. One flood that occurred while I was out there killed over 70 people. Anyway, when I came home that first week, I saw my neighbor lady burst into tears because her automatic garage door opener wasn't working. I'm not saying that it's my right to say what kind of a day she'd been having...but it was hard for me to sympathize also. I'm thankful for the country I live in. I'm thankful that in spite of what this country is going through that Scott me and the kids have been blessed with SO much. We have each other, we have our family, and we have our kids. We have our temporal blessings too, but even if those go away we still have what matters. What a fantastic life we have!!
Over the last four years, we've created a tradition among Itri's who all live close together out here. Every year all the Itri brothers tend to spend Thanksgiving with the wives families since their parents live far away, but it's not fair that they don't get to all see each other and hang out for Thanksgiving either, so 4 years ago, we started the "Itri Pre-Thanksgiving Pasta Pigout," in which the Itri boys all make some form of pasta, or Italian food, (their specialty) and bring it together for one massive pigout usually a day or two before Thanksgiving. This year, it was a no brainer that we were going to do it again. It's offically become a tradition in the sense that we all look forward to it every year, and we even get inventive, trying out dishes we've never made before. Everyone's dishes were excellent. I should have taken more detailed pictures of the food, but my kids were distracting me like crazy, so this is the best it's going to get, enjoy the crudely labeled food: Todd made the pasta with oxtail in it, which was really tasty. It happened to be Seth's favorite of all the Pasta's. Scott made the Seafood linguini with pesto sauce, which turned out really really well also, and was a favorite among many. Since it had mushrooms I had an aversion to it, because for some reason mushrooms really bug me whenever I'm pregnant, so I only ate a little bit, but it was good. On the bottom left is the only portion of the pic featuring Dan and Kelsey's lasagna, (sorry guys...I think I got it on video though) which was my favorite that night. Even Todd, who is really picky with the way people cook lasagna told them it was really good. The garlic bread was provided by Jason. Also, Johnny and Dani, who've somehow awesomely been able to make it every year to our pasta pigout even when they didn't live here in Utah, provided some really tasty dessert: Angel food cake with a delicious strawberry topping and whipped cream. Mmmmmmm. Lets not forget the creamy hot chocolate! Everyone loved the dessert. It was an excellent finishing touch to such a huge, tasty, meal.
Nobody knows what happened to Jason's dessert. There were several blames from the size of the pan to something being wrong with Betty Crocker herself, but the tragedy continues to remain a mystery: If you like really thin flat crunchy brownies though, they would have been a hit for you. I still ate some. Chocolate is chocolate right?
Anyway, good times were had by all.
. The kids had a blast playing with each other, we had some great conversation, and then the girls all made the boys watch "Crazy Stupid Love", which they weren't too happy about, but you can't win em all. It's easier to convince the boys to watch chick flick type movies when all the girls gang up on them in the same room, unfortunately, since it bombed with them they probably get to choose the next time we get together. Special thanks to Todd and Megan for allowing it to be hosted at their house this year. :) We missed Megan who had to work, being a busy nurse and all, but hopefully we can see her there next year.
I. am. sorry. My life is chaos and I am struggling with keeping up with this blog these last four months. Sometimes I'll start a post, work on it for a little bit, and then chaos piles in, so I forget about it and by the time I get back to blogging, it's no longer relevant. So here I am playing catch up again, which is usually my wimpy way of saying...here are some pictures of what I've been up to because I'm too lazy to go into details. Feel free to scroll through and only peek at the stuff that interests you cause with so much to catch up on I would probably do the same thing.
AUGUST AND HAWAII
FIRST was August. We went to Hawaii with Dan and Kelsey. Here are some pictures of some of my most favorite moments there.
First and most important, is the food we ate. Am I right food people?
HAWAII FOOD HIGHLIGHTS.....
We ate the BIGGEST plate of pancakes that I've ever seen in my entire life. Naturally we didn't finish it, since it was as wide as a large pizza and there was a stack of them.
Nico's cafe at the pier. (Best tuna steaks in the world):
Boston Style Pizza
We also found authentic Mexican food
The most garlicky shrimp on the planet, sold out of a trailer...and wildly popular (which is why we tried it) even though it pretty much ruined garlic for me for the rest of my pregnancy:
Origional Hawaiian Shaved Ice...which I LOVED. I still crave this. The Puka Dog. An amazing hot dog place on the strip in Waikiki. A fresh seafood feast the the men cooked for us because they love us and are awesome. They even set the table: We also found some really really good Italian food, with a variety of amazing pastas. That is me eating a squid that was in my seafood pasta because I'm so disgusting and awesome. So that was food.
PLACES WE LIKED AND SAW were
Hiking Diamondhead
It's no secret that I love hiking, even while pregnant. Since I was only close to 6 months here and still in my second trimester, (the easiest) it was no problem. Unfortunately it was a really hot day and we got there at the same time as a huge bus full of asian tourists, so Scott wasn't really happy, and at one point I thought he actually might kill me for making him finish the hike instead of quitting halfway through. He hates being hot, and he hates tunnels like this one: If you were hot and tired and feeling claustrophobic because you can't see the end of the tunnel or how long it would go, you'd probably want to kill the person forcing you to finish too, HOWEVER we did get some pretty cool pictures out of the experience, and I get to share them with you now. :)
Scott wanting to punch me
Waikiki Beach. A little crowded for my taste, but worth seeing at least once: Hanauma Bay. LOVED this place. The Marriot Ko'Olina beach club resort. Courtesy of my parents and their time share: North Shore...we went beach hopping and snorkeling all along the coast there. Also we all agreed that the prettier beaches are on that side of the island.
Shopping in the flea market at Aloha Stadium. The boys hated this, but it was a blast for Kelsey and I.
Pearl Harbor
Manoa falls hike in the rain forest. You can't see it in the pictures but it was pouring rain the whole time:
Hawaii LDS Temple: LDS Polyneisian Culture Center: (These ones below are pictures of pictures so the quality sucks, but they wanted to charge almost 40 bucks for these stupid things, and it wasn't worth it, so enjoy)
We also went to a Bhuddist Wak (temple) that was nearby to look around. Actually just Kelsey and I went, the boys weren't interested. They listened to sports radio talk in the car the whole time because they actually found that more interesting.
Lanikai Beach. Where we spent our last day. Also turned out to be the least crowded and the sand was the most white and powdery there. ANYWAY that is seriously only about 25% of the pictures we took, but I'm strapped for time. I've already taken an hour just to post all those, so MOVING ON.
SEPTEMBER/ CRYSTALS FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN
That, for me at least, was my highlight of September. My little girl started School!! I can't believe how grown up she is, and how beautiful she's getting every day. We are SO proud of her!
Looking a little nervous: Hugging her little brother goodbye Embarking on a new journey: Love this girl!! Getting in line Anyway, she is doing great. She was a little nervous about Mommy and Daddy not being with her while she was at school for that first week, but now she loves it and can't wait to go. Every day she tells us what she's learned, who she's played with and often complains when she's NOT in school and about how much she wants to be there and have fun and play games. She's already learned a lot of reading and math, and has homework every day. Also she went on her first field trip already and got to explore a fire truck, so school has opened up a whole world of excitement for her. Also, it gives me a small break during the day and Seth and I bond during that time. Though he misses her when she's gone, he also likes the one on one attention he gets, and since he and Crystal seem to scream either out of happiness, anger, or play all day lately whenever they're together, it keeps the noise to a minimum. Seriously...they are SO loud when they're together these days. Anyway, honestly, that just about the only significant thing I can remember happening in September. The only other thing that I remember is that Scott and I got engaged on September 16th seven years ago, so we were feeling pretty cool for being together for seven years even if it's not a wedding anniversary yet. I'm racking my brain and can't remember anything else, either because my pregnancy is making my brain fuzzy, or nothing exciting really happened.
OCTOBER: ITRI WIFE GIRLS NIGHT OUT, GOING TO CONCERTS AND HALLOWEEN PARTIES WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY
During the first weekend in October those of us who live close together and married to an Itri decided we needed a break from the boys and their testosterone for a weekend and remember what it's like to be girls again. So the four of us went up to park city to spend the weekend in a cute little hotel, watch chick flicks, do manicures and pedi's and have girl time without husbands and kids for just a night. We missed our men and babies, but it was nice to do our own thing and bond as Itri wives. Especially because we went shopping for the entire day the next day and didn't have to worry about anybody in the group being bored. The Itri Wives need to go shopping together more often! Cute little kitchen! We were able to keep it warm without any husbands turning the place into an ice box! Looking for places to eat: Breakfast! Dani's little snowman! Other stuff that happened in October...
Scott took me to the Foo Fighters concert that next week. Scott and I have a history of going to a rock concert together every time I've been pregnant. With my Crystal it was Green Day. With Seth, it was Jimmy Eat World. With this little guy, it was the Foo Fighters. I was really happy about this because the Foo Fighters came around in my generation growing up, and not only have they managed to keep pumping out good music and make it into the rock and roll hall of fame, but I have a lot of memories with a bunch of their songs that will always mean something to me. Even Scott could connect because one of his all time favorite songs (Everlong) was written by them, so it was really cool for him to hear it live, from the amazing artist that is Dave Ghrol. It was nice to get away from everything and be on a date. We even had a really late night meal at a local Village Inn after the concert ended at midnight. Scott did an amazing job at surprising me with these tickets.
Halloween!
Halloween was fun this year. I grew up in a family that loves to get all dressed up and crazy and make a big deal out of Halloween. Maybe it's because we're all immature, or maybe it's because we all have a flare for going over the top, but it's always been a favorite holiday of mine, and so I get all excited to dress up my kids every year. ALSO since there was no baseball game, we Itri Wives were able to get the husbands on the wagon of having an actual Halloween party this year, not just a "Lets watch the game and sort of dress up for Halloween" this year. Hurray for parties!! Anyway, back to dressing up my kids. Crystal was kind of a mix this year. Her dress was like Glenda, the good witch of the North from the movie of wizard of Oz, but sometimes she wanted to be Princess Aurora so she also had a long blonde wig handy and she switched back and fourth. Seth actually invented his own costume this year. Even though he has every super hero costume possible, a month or two back he had a dream that he was flying and hanging out with all the superheroes he loves; Superman, Batman, The Green Lantern, Spiderman, the Hulk, Ironman, etc...Anyway in his dream, not only was he hanging out with them, but he was also his own superhero, "Super Sethie." So he insisted that he had to be Super Sethie for Halloween this year. He informed us that Super Sethie has spikey hair, and wears all black, including his mask and cape. He also has an "H" on his shirt. Everybody thinks "H" stands for "Hero," but "H" happens to be the only letter in his name that he can write without making mistakes, so he's really proud of it. This was the costume I came up with, and he loved it. We just printed out a fancy "H" on some iron on fabric that we picked up at a craft store. The belt came from one of his many other superhero costumes, and the rest was really easy.
We went to our first ward/neighborhood trunk or treat this year. Since we actually purchased the home we live in, we make it a point to actually attend the neighborhood activities, which we never have before. For anyone not familiar with a trunk or treat, it's like going trick or treating, except everyone parks their cars in a big parking lot and hands out candy from the trunk of their cars. Here are a couple of pictures of that: Our spooky trunk. We went with skull/skeleton theme:
There were TONS of trunk or treaters. Crystal's candy basket was almost overflowing by the time we were done. Below are some pics of our Halloween Party we had the same weekend. Everyone dressed up, and we played some games and had some awesome finger food. After the kids went to bed we, of course watched a scary Halloween movie. This year the movie was "Insidious" which is basically like a modern "Poltergeist", but still entertaining.
Scott and I were fat skeletons. Mine was because of a baby, and his was because of burgers and fries. My sister and her boyfriend, a.k.a. mad scientist and crazy deranged patient
Dan and Kelsey, a.k.a. Baby and Zorro
My brother Jared and his wife Alisa, a.k.a. Two hippies with their dino baby, Issac. Todd, Megan and Lila, a.k.a. "Starburns" (from the show 'Community'), 20's girl, and pumpkin: My Brother Matt and his girlfriend, a.k.a. Tarzan and angel: Scotts cousin Jason, a.k.a. Pauly D from the Jersey shore: Group shot: Also I didn't get a chance to get individual pictures of Courtney (Kelsey's sister) and her husband Paul and Jen (Scott's cousin) who came dressed up like Snooki from the Jersey Shore. I either spaced it or thought already got shots of them, but they are at least here int he group pic.
We also had awesome finger food!
Owl cupcakes Alisa made: Witch hat cookies: Eyeball deviled eggs Kelsey made: We played games too. The first game was a guessing game to get to know the people in the group. The second was a classic in the Itri family...Mafia. Always fun to play with Itri's because they get so heated up when they argue. The third wasn't very Halloween related but still fun, and that was "Guess the 90's song" out of a audio file of the top 200 most popular songs in the nineties. For the trifecta of three points in a row, you had to guess the name of the song, the artist and the year it came out. All the excitement wore out my little superhero. After the kids went to bed we watched this movie. I actually really like the entertainment value I get out of this film. Both the stuff that creeps me out and the cheesy stuff that makes me laugh out loud.
So October was busy, but a lot of fun.
November. Welp, so far not much has happened. I'm on the home stretch for this pregnancy, and missing the easiness of the second trimester like crazy. It's the little things, like not feeling like your back is going to snap in two, or being able to roll over in my sleep, or pick something up that I drop...but that's pregnancy for you. It would be nice to be able to walk without feeling like my groin will tear though. Just a little. It is what it is. The good news is that I only have about 5 weeks less. I've already planned ahead with the doc to give birth a week before my due date, and since I've had both my previous kids over a week early without any problems, (Actually with my firstborn my water broke 2 and a half weeks early) I'm okay with scheduling it in early. In the meantime I continue to waddle, and the doc says at my height it's pretty normal to be in constant pain and not to worry. Yay. Also, I'm still working, but only for two more weeks, because after Thanksgiving my life is going to go crazy with preparing for this baby for three weeks, including attempting to potty train my son, yet again. Seth and I go through cycles where we try, he rebels, and I take a break for a few months. He's perfectly happy to sit on the potty, and even enjoys it, but that's about it. Nothing really happens once he sits there. Yesterday by his own choice, he sat on his little potty chair in front of the TV for an hour and didn't squeeze out a drop. Then took a nap and peed everywhere. Mind you I'm not pushing him here. I made the mistake of showing him the movie 'Potty Power'. An extremely cheesy kids show that encourages kids Seth's age to be a big kid and use the potty. He loves it. He's obsessed with it, and he wants to watch it everyday. Other than that, it hasn't done much except making him insist on sitting on his potty for long periods of time and not going to the bathroom at all while on it until he gets off. This is how I feel about my son and the toilet right now: So for now, that's what I'm doing lately, working and potty training, slowly getting in all the Christmas shopping, because I won't have time after thanksgiving to do much shopping. Also, in 2 weeks I'm hosting Thanksgiving at my home this year for my side of the family. So my parents and my siblings will all be coming over to our home and I have to get ready for that too. It's kind of cool being a grown up with my own house to have Thanksgiving at though, so I'm not complaining. Should be a cool Thanksgiving this year. Hopefully I'll get the pictures posted on here before the end of the month. These next two months are going to be a whirlwind. It's kind of weird to think that our new little man will officially be part of our family so soon. It's so crazy to see the differences in the personalities of my two kids already. Not just gender differences either, they are so opposite in their style, likes and personalities. Crystal is so much like her father it's scary. She argues like him, reasons like him, and deals with her problems the same way he does. Seth is actually a lot more like me personality wise. It will be interesting to see the personality that comes from this next one and fun to see what his little face looks like. Sometimes I get my hopes up and think that it's not to late to actually have a baby with dark hair and olive skin like me and Scott, since both our kids are fairer than both of us so far. People always remark on how our kids have both lighter hair and skin than Scott and I. Who knew our genetic makeup would do that? Crazy. Anyway maybe it will always do that or maybe I'll have just one that looks more Italian/Latin. Honestly I don't think so though. Not that I'm complaining, Like every parent, I think I have the cutest kids on the planet. Maybe even all the other planets too. Yes yes I think so.
I hope anyone who actually reads this has a Happy Thanksgiving!! Especially cause you care enough about me to actually read the crap I write on here. I like you most. I'm selfish like that.
This of course led to the other thing I'm most thankful for this year, Family. My siblings and parents, and of course Scott's siblings and his parents too. It's led to so many awesome memories over the years.
The world needs more kids dancing in living rooms!!!
