It's a Girl!!

Yup. We found out today that we are having another little girl. We are SO EXCITED!!! Matt and I obviously would have been happy with a boy, but we were both really hoping for another girl. We think it will be so fun for Kalianna to have a little sister. And since she will also be born in April, we already have all the right size clothing for the right season. It's perfect!

One of the best parts about being pregnant is my sister is due the same week I am. It's been so fun! We are going through much of the same things at the same time, so it's really awesome! Since our kids are going to be so close, we thought it would be fun to have the same thing. But she is having a boy. Her third boy. And we are having our second girl. Funny how things work out! It will still be super fun to watch the two of them grow up together though. Who knows? Maybe they will even have the same birthday!

And the winner is...

Theresa Howell!! Thank you everyone for participating in my book contest! I know I was supposed to make the announcement yesterday, but we were out of town. So tonight, I put all the names of the participants in a bowl and let Kalianna draw out the winner. Congratulations Theresa! And thanks for helping to spread the word about my book!

My Book! ~Contest~

So it is nearly 2:00am and I can't sleep. You know why? Cause I am way too jazzed about my book! It's here! I know I said three weeks, but it got done early and is now available for purchase! Woo-hoo!!! When I got the package today in the mail, I nearly passed out. I felt so happy, I wanted to cry! And barf a little. Just so many emotions swirling through my body, I could hardly take it! Anyway, I decided in honor of my book's release, I would hold a little contest here on my blog to win a free copy. Interested? Here's what you have to do: in the next two weeks (the contest will go until Nov. 27th), you have to mention my book on your blog. Simple, right? Then just let me know that you did, so I can enter your name in a drawing and voila! You could win a free copy of my book! You can either just copy and paste the information I have below, put a direct link to this post, or say something similar. So...Ready...Set...Blog!

What happens when you mix five modern teenagers with five fairy tale princesses? Belle, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, and Snow White Princess are cousins (and best friends) stuck with names they're not too fond of...and now together they must face the challenge of getting ready for high school--a world where fitting in is definitely a must. But how will they ever fit in when they're destined to stand out? Or, perhaps more importantly, how will their friendship ever survive when the five Princesses all set their minds on one prince?

The Princess Sisters is a fun, young adult fiction novel about friendship, finding yourself, and learning how to tell apart a prince from a frog. It's geared toward tween and teenage girls, but the pop culture references and themes of boys and friendship can be enjoyed by women of all ages! The Princess Sisters can be purchased from Barnes and Noble:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Princess-Sisters/Stacy-Lynn-Carroll/e/9781427650368/?itm=7&USRI=The+Princess+Sisters

Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Princess-Sisters-Stacy-Lynn-Carroll/dp/1427650365/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1289604399&sr=8-1

Ecko Books:

http://www.eckobooks.com/product/1002006/The-Princess-Sisters/

Or you can purchase a copy directly from me for $10. First come, first serve, until I run out. Thanks to everyone for all your love and support!

My New Favorite Question

"What's that?"
This question can be heard throughout our house at least a hundred times a day.
"What's that?"
"That's your teddy bear."
"What's that?"
"That's your cereal."
"What's that?"
"That's your tummy."
I love how inquisitive she has become! Sometimes, if she already knows, she will answer her own questions.
"What's that?" pointing to a horse. "Then she looks at me and replies, "Neigh!"
She makes me laugh! First thing I wake up to in the morning is a little voice coming from her room. "What's that?"
She is at such a fun age! And I love how fast she learns new things. She is also in the repeating stage, so she is constantly learning new words. One of her new favorite words is "Baby". She loves pointing out babies! I even got that documentary "Babies" in the redbox. She loved it! I was actually disappointed, and found it rather boring. But Kalianna Loved it! Throughout the whole movie she kept saying, "What's that?" "Baby!"

3 Weeks

They say patience is a virtue. It's a virtue I have always felt I was blessed with. I can be patient with people and children and animals. More so than many others I have seen. But when it comes to waiting for something, I feel like I am jumping out of my skin! My thoughts constantly go to the thing I am waiting for, I find myself distracted with anticipation. And this time I am waiting on two things! Three weeks. My book went to the printers yesterday. They told me the turn around is about three weeks. Finally! After all the work and frustrations my book will be available for purchase in three weeks!

In three weeks I am having my ultrasound to find out what we're having next! I am so excited! Everyone seems to think we are having a boy. With Kalianna, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was a girl since day one. With this one, I honestly have absolutely no idea! I keep going back and forth. So in three weeks we will get an awesome surprise! Three weeks. That's like nothing, right? A blink and here it is. Then why is waiting three weeks seem like forever?!

Trick-or-Treat

As per tradition, we went to Matt's work for trick-or-treating this year. They always do a really big thing every year for Halloween. Kalianna was a super cute little cheerleader! I couldn't get any pictures of her with her pom (two are pom-poms, one is a pom) but she did enjoy playing with it. We went with my sister and nephews, and the kids all had a ball! Since there were so many people there, Kalianna wanted to be held most of the time. She didn't quite get what was going on, but she definitely got the candy! She couldn't believe her luck, that people were just giving her candy! She got quite a good haul (with 350 employees, the kids get plenty of candy!) so we decided not to take her actually trick-or-treating this year. She got plenty from work and was perfectly happy. Afterwards, we all went over to my parents for a yummy dinner. Here are some cute pics of her in her costume:

My favorite part of the costume. Her cute lil' piggies!

Trick-or-Treating (and eating)

The whole fam

Enjoying some cheetos out of her bag, on the way to Grandma's house.

My cute nephews. We forgot to get a picture of the three of them together.

Happy Anniversary

Matt and I celebrated our 5th anniversary last week! Our actual anniversary was on Thursday, but Matt had work and classes all day. So we watched our wedding video that night together (our tradition) and then celebrated over the weekend. We wanted to go somewhere or do something special, but since funds were low we decided to spend the weekend in Logan. (Still going somewhere, but keeping it cheap!) Bryan and Ricci came up and stayed with Kalianna and the dogs for us. Thanks guys! We left Friday after work and stopped in Brigham City for a yummy dinner at Maddox.

Once full, we continued on to Logan. We relaxed at the hotel, swam for a bit, and watched a movie.

The next day it was wonderful to sleep in! We took our sweet time getting ready and checked out at the last possible minute (pulling a Ross). Then we went straight to the Logan temple. I love the Logan temple! If both our families weren't entirely in Salt Lake, this is the temple I would have gotten married in. I've just always had a special place for it in my heart. Ahhhhh!

After doing a session (which was in Spanish, by the way! Totally different experience listening to the entire thing through a translator box!) we headed over to The Bluebird for a late lunch. Yummy! We just love The Bluebird! Matt always gets the bluebird chicken and we both always get ironports--mine with cherry (super yummy soda).

Since we were checked out of the hotel and didn't want to remain in Sunday attire the rest of the day, we stood guard for each other and changed in the temple parking lot. That was quite an adventure! After lunch, we thought it would be nice to go for a drive up the canyon to take some pictures and enjoy the pretty fall colors. Well, we drove by my old house and one of my old apartments up there. Then, once we entered the canyon, it started to pour! So much for getting pictures! It was raining so hard, we could barely see out the windows! We had planned on doing a hike too. Oh well! Instead we turned around and got some yummy USU ice cream. My favorite!

Since the weather was bad, it kinda put a dent in the rest of our Saturday plans. So we decided to head down to Ogden for a movie. (we had a gift card for a theater there) We saw "Hereafter" with Matt Damon. Has anyone else seen it? Cause I would love to hear your take on it! It was much more of a drama and much less of a thriller than we were expecting. It was good. I'm not saying we didn't enjoy it, but at the end we looked at each other and said, "What was the point?" Many conflicts. No resolutions. It was just interesting. Anyway, after our movie we finally headed home. It was lots of fun, and a rare treat, to spend two whole days together alone! We had a great anniversary! But we did miss our girl too. =)