Less than 10 weeks to go and counting....

I realized I hadn't taken a picture yet of my baby bump to compare to my previous girls. So here I am at 30 weeks with baby girl #3

And this was with Norah about the same time....... and funny enough taken in the same dress in the same bathroom mirror... haha. I was bigger with Norah... so here's hoping that this one doesn't try to pull 11 lbs like her sister!!! We'll find out on Tuesday, May 17... that is our scheduled c-section. It'll be here before we know it!

Surprise Birthday Weekend

It was John's birthday last week so he had a little surprise come his way President's Day weekend. He knew that one of his sisters, Kristina was flying in to celebrate with us, but when he got to the airport he was met with this crew holding a "Happy Birthday John" sign. We had 8 of the 10 kids together and his mom and a baby nephew we hadn't met yet. They all flew in to surprise him. He was floored! It was awesome.

Our weekend included going to the temple to do sealings in the morning then heading to Muir Woods which we enjoyed despite the constant rain.

Saturday night Grandma Kathy stayed home with the kids while we all headed into SF to enjoy dessert and dancing at the Tonga Room.... a tiki lounge that had a band on a boat floating in the in the center and everything. It even "rained" indoors. It was a fun spot.

Sunday we had a yummy birthday dinner and birthday cake. John's siblings all shared memories of John growing up which was fun for me to hear :)

Monday we headed down to Santa Cruz and went to the Mystery Spot. Its a place where gravity is said to be out of whack. Compasses don't read correctly when you within the small radias of this spot.... things roll uphill... Its a fun spot to visit

At the Mystery Spot

We also grabbed lunch along the pier in Santa Cruz... dipped toes in the ocean and then drove up highway 1 along the ocean to get home. It was gorgeous. What a weekend we had!! It was so fantastic to see everyone and to spend some time together... although too short! We so appreciate the effort they went to to show John they love him.



The girls went through withdrawals all last week after they had left. Mia kept thinking/hoping that maybe her aunts and uncles were just sleeping in the basement and hadn't really left. Love you all! And love to the amazing spouses who were willing to stay home with the kids for the weekend so we could enjoy Aunt Katie and Uncle Robbie!! You're awesome!

Thanks Aunt Kristina for being the mastermind behind it all!!!

Lawrence Hall of Science

Saturday we went to UC Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science where they have lots of hands on displays for kids. It was fun... but I think we had the most fun playing on the life size whale and the huge double helix...haha.

Sorority!

Welcome to the Potter Sorority! Yup... we are having another girl! I had my ultrasound this past week but unfortunately John was unable to attend. So the technician printed out a picture showing that it was a girl, wrote "It's a girl" on it, and sealed it in an envelope at my request without my knowing the gender. John got home early that night (8p...sad when that's early) so we were able to open the envelope together as a family to find out that we were adding another girl to our ranks. Mia was soooo excited. She wanted a girl :) But really she is just excited at the thought that she'll be getting a bunk bed when she turns 5 since we'll have 3 girls in that bedroom. Hooray for sisters!

Hooray for Christmas

A few days before Christmas Mia was very concerned that she hadn't talked to Santa yet (we'd been home sick for a few weeks as the fever and cough got passed around). So we headed to the local mall for Mia could tell Santa what she wanted. When we got there and got in line... I realized that everyone else in line was dressed in their Christmas best for the picture. The thought hadn't even crossed my mind about the picture....we were just concerned about Mia getting to see Santa. After an hour in line... she finally got to talk to him. And we got a picture

too.

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Mia LOVES crafts. Without preschool for 2 weeks we were doing our own Christmas crafts everyday. This tree was a favorite of mine. She painted it and glued on the ornaments.

Christmas Eve John had the day off which was great. We doorbell ditched goodies on our neighbors doorsteps in the morning which Mia LOVED doing and has decided that its something we need to do more often. We had dinner at my Grandma Pimentel's which is what I did all growing up.

After dinner we had our usual program of reading the Christmas story from the scriptures and doing Christmas music with the chimes. Mia was following the music and doing the chimes all on her own by the end of the night. It was so fun to see!

Here we all are with my Grandma. We sure love having her close by!

All of us at Grandmas

What is it about daughters in matching dresses that can make a mom so happy?!?!? I had no idea that I'd like it so much!

Christmas morning Mia sure had a blast. And Santa was pleased to have found a princess scooter and furnished dollhouse on craigslist a few weeks earlier at REALLY good prices. Hooray for craigslist!

Norah learned quickly how to open presents and loved ripping any wrapping paper she could get her hands on. Christmas is so much better with kids! We had a blast!