Well, we said goodbye to an era this week with the loss of our 15-year-old Saturn. A couple of weeks ago I was rear-ended while sitting at a red light and the back of the car was crunched right in (luckily the kids and myself were ok). After a lot of drama with the other driver and her insurance company (too traumatizing to recount), our poor car was declared a "total loss". It was especially sad, knowing that the value listed on paper is not even close to the value that car was to us! But, what can you do? So, we took the settlement and then watched a tow truck carry our car away on Monday.

It's funny how we regularly complained about having old cars: no air conditioning, no features, no air conditioning, not enough room , no air conditioning, etc. =) But, when it came down to seeing one of our cars go, it was really bittersweet. This was my car when we met and fell in love and were married. This was the car that carried around both of our beautiful girls. We have great memories and are a bit sad to see this time end. I'm sure it sounds corny, but our family was blessed to have such a dependable car for so long.

Well, I finally broke down and we started potty training Brynn this week. I just keep telling myself how wonderful it will be when she is done, and how much grocery money we'll save not having to buy diapers! The first week is the worst, so we're being hermits in our house this week. At least we have beautiful weather and can still play outside (those accidents are a lot easier to clean up anyway!) She's doing her best and so am I, so I'm sure we'll make it through the week in one piece.

James and I celebrated our 7th anniversary on Friday...hard to believe! What a lucky woman I am to have such an incredible husband. We celebrated in St. George, all by ourselves (thanks, mom and dad)! What a beautiful part of the state! It's amazing how everything is surrounded by red rock (though I kept thinking how badly their dirt must stain kids' clothes. Pathetic, huh?!). We shopped and played and slept in...It was wonderful. The highlight was when we attended the musical Les Miserables at the Tuacahn amphitheatre...a must-see for everyone (both the musical and the location).

It was so nice to step away from our day-to-day life for just a couple of days to get rejuvenated. And, it worked! (Now I'm ready to plan our next vacation!)

Though some of you already now, we feel that it's official enough now to announce that we are getting a very special gift this Christmas...baby #3! We are so excited and can't wait to meet "it". We even have the first picture of our teeny baby to make it feel even more real. Brynn doesn't quite get the whole concept, but Abby keeps saying that she's "getting a baby for Christmas", so it's fun that she can share in our excitement. My due date is actually Christmas Day (though, since I, along with my doctor, get to pick the date, I doubt that will be the actual birthday). Yippee!

(As an added bonus, we will be out of car space with 3 kids, so we are also getting a new-to-us car! Now the combined ages of our cars will be less than 30 years. What a relief!)