Wanna know what makes me deliriously happy???...

THESE..... FROM HIM.....

I love tulips! They are by far my favorite flower-they remind me of when me and Paul got married, when Allie was born and SPRING! They make me happy just looking at them and because these came from Paul, they make me feel loved, appreciated and thought about. All that from flowers, you say?....yup. :) Paul has been on a business trip for over three weeks now-and he sent these to me on Friday. I giggled like a little girl! I don't think I have missed my husband like this since he went on his mission! I love that he sent a little spring into my life. He also sent me therapy without knowing it. There is nothing I love more than taking pictures of flowers. So this morning I spent WAY too much time with these tulips-but I got some amazing pictures.

These ended up being my favorites and as I looked at them I realized that they are the exact colors in my little girls' room. I have decided that I am going to blow these up, put them in white frames and hang them on their pink walls. They will go absolutely perfect in there.....in with my sweet "flowers." :)

{These pictures are completely untouched.....nature needs no photoshopping!}

You know what else makes me happy?

Him....

And her....

Forgotten pictures...

I was going through some pictures and I found these. This is how we told both of our parents that we were pregnant. I never put them on here because I got so sick right after that. I almost forgot about these shirts and I'm glad that I found them!

***********

I finished the girls' room and LOVE it. Sometimes I just go in there and sit in it. It makes me wish I were a little girl again. :) I will post pictures soon...

***********
I also found these picture and it made me miss Summer time. I love when we can play outside all day. Hurry Spring!

I may have missed my calling......

......as a pancake artist!
Me and Easton are home alone tonight and I told him that we could have pancakes for dinner(again). I like to make pancake shapes for him and he thinks this is the most hilarious thing ever. I'm an absolute pro at making mickey mouse, hearts, letters and faces, but tonight he decided he only wanted to eat dinosaur pancakes.

SO.........check out OUR Krusteaz Buttermilk TITANOSAUR!!(Long-neck) ROAR!!!!

No, I am not kidding! I am now the coolest person in my four year old's world! Ha! It took two spatula's to flip it, about two gallons of syrup and he couldn't eat all of it. Next time we are going for a Triceratops. That or Papa's "big truck." I'll have to pull out all my "mad" pancake skills for those! ;)

Baby Sisters in Space

This the conversation I overheard at breakfast this morning. Can you tell what is being talked about A LOT at our house?

Easton: "Allie, what in the world are we going to do with a baby sister?"

Allie: "Love her and kiss her."

**********************Pause***********************

Easton: "Well.....okay. But if she annoys me I'm sending her to outerspace!"


hee-hee....I'm sure she will both delight and annoy him for a LONG time. :)

Baby Belly.....

My baby belly at 29 wks. Picture courtesy of Allie. She takes a picture of my belly every Sunday. I need to remember to put her up on a chair-the straight up angle is not attractive.

So I figured I need to do a baby update-for journaling purposes. I feel like this pregnancy is FLYING! In fact, I am starting to panic a little bit. I haven't done one thing to get ready for this baby. I have bought clothes-but nothing else and she is coming and coming SOON! I had a doctor's appointment last week and I have one more appt. in three weeks and then I start my every two week appointments! She is head down now(there went my excuse for a tummy tuck-dang!) and she weighs about 2lbs. She still covers her face and crosses her legs and my doctor keeps calling her "petite" which kind of worries me, but she assures me that she is growing just fine...she is just on the smaller side. I am still due April 3-so apparently she isn't small enough to change my date. This pregnancy, since the sickness went away, has probably been my very easiest-so far. I worried about being pregnant in my 30's because I had heard horror stories, but none of them have held true for me-yet. I could almost say that I have enjoyed this. Almost. I suffer miserably in the beginning, but it seems to be smooth sailing after the nausea subsides. I don't retain any water, so I don't swell and because she is so high I can still wear my pants if they are low enough-I think this is great. Paul, on the other hand is quite certain I am smashing her umbilical cord or zipping up her head! He demanded tonight that I start wearing maternity pants-so to ease his worry, I will. :) I get bigger every day though and today Easton told me that I was the biggest mommy ever. NICE. I imagine it is weird for them to watch me grow and change. Allie wasn't too excited that it was a girl at first. I think she worried about her "spot" in life, but now she loves to help me find clothes for her and made me buy this gold, shimmery tutu looking skirt from Old Navy just because the baby will "sparkle like a princess in the sun." Her words-exactly. I don't think Easton has a clue what is coming. All I know is that he wants to name her "Erica." He has actually told some people this is what we are naming her-and no, we are not! We have narrowed it down to a few, but we will have to see. We may just have to wait and see her little face! After my Dr. appointment, I went to Home Depot and bought the paint colors for the "girls" room. Paul is leaving for Florida this week and I am planning on painting while he is gone. I'm so excited to get a room ready for this baby! My other two were brought home to an apartment-so I have never got to do the full paint-and-decorate a nursery thing. Allie will have to share with the baby for awhile until our basement is finished this spring and then, if she wants, she can move downstairs to her own room again. Somehow I think the idea of living in the basement will keep her happy sharing with her sister though.....just a hunch :) So, while Paul works fast and furiously on the basement of the house, I will be working just as hard on the kids bedrooms upstairs. I like having the projects though and I think it will make time fly that much faster.

So for the current time, I am enjoying my "expectant" state. Now, talk to me in a few weeks when my belly button has popped out like a turkey timer and I can't see my feet and I'm sure I will be singing a different tune!;)

Our "White" Christmas

I'm so sad that Christmas is over! I took all my decorations down today and my house looks depressed to me. I get sad every year when it is over and I loathe January. I fight the blahs during this month-so maybe if I blog about our holiday it will help me feel better? Here are some of the highlights I want to remember.....

THE NUTCRACKER

This was SO fun! Me, my mom and Allie went the day before Christmas Eve to Ballet West's matinee. The snow was coming down like crazy and we had to borrow my Dad's truck to get there-but we got there and it was worth every white knuckle driving moment! We have decided it is a tradition we would like to continue every year. I had Allie wear a dress and I was worried that she would be overdressed but I didn't need to worry! There were little girls in the fanciest dresses everywhere! It was really cute. We had really good seats, in fact I don't know if I have ever seen the ballet that close-up. (Me and my mother both decided that those boy ballet dancers MUST stuff their leotards-gross. I got a real good view, if you know what I mean.) The baby was going absolutely nuts during the ballet. Either that music was really stimulating or really irritating to her-but she didn't stop kicking the whole time! We went to Olive Garden before because that is Allie's favorite place to eat-of course all she really eats is the breadsticks!:) It was such a fun day to spend with my mom and my daughter. I look forward to the day that I am taking both of my girls!

Allie and my mom at the Olive Garden....aren't they cute?

Outside the Capitol-freezing our butts off while my mom tried to figure out how to "zoom" lol!

Why do we both look so bug-eyed you ask? Well-for one, I have bug eyes! Two, this was taken in the dark and the flash about blinded us both! haha...
Allie and her Clara doll I bought her-I think she was more taken with this than the ballet! She played and played with it.

After the ballet was over, you could buy a $5 ticket to go backstage to meet the dancers. They wouldn't allow me to take my camera back there-apparently the Nutcracker is all licensed, so I had to buy one of "their" pictures of Allie with the cast. This is a crappy picture-because it is a picture of a picture....but you get the idea.

SUGAR COOKIE DAY

I usually love my annual sugar cookie day-I have an AMAZING recipe from my mom who got it from her mom and it makes the BEST soft sugar cookies in the world! Really-I have neighbors who wait for a plate of these cookies all year long-and I'm no great cook, I just happen to have a great recipe. BUT for some reason this year it wasn't so much fun for me. Maybe it is because I'm pregnant and get tired so easily, or maybe it was that Allie wasn't feeling very well, or maybe it was the ENTIRE bag of flour that was used in the process and therefore all over my kitchen, OR the fact that I had to frost over 50 cookies-whatever it was, it was a big fat CHORE this year! But in the end, we got them done, they tasted fabulous, I cleaned the kitchen and we had cookies to leave out for Santa. Whew! I'm glad that my annual sugar cookie day is done for the year. Maybe next year it will be fun again? Of course, next year I will have a 8-month-old crawling around in all that flour. hmmmmm....

Easton & Allie decorating "Santa's" cookies.....

Allie was not feeling so great this day(and still isn't)....but she was a great "cookie froster!"

Christmas Eve

We put a lot of miles on our car on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We have several places and parties to go to-but I'm not complaining~ It's nice to have so much family near by and to be so loved! We start at Paul's grandparents house. I have been going with Paul to his grandparent's on Christmas Eve since we started dating, so this year was my 15th year! Can you believe that? Time flies! After we leave the farm, we always head to my Mom and Dad's. My grammy Mel and Aunt Connie came and spent Christmas with our family this year, which for some reason just made Christmas more Christmasy(is that a word?). Probably because they were always part of my Christmases growing up. I love them! Aunt Connie even gave me LipSmackers-a tradition that has been going since I was about 13. Grandma told the kids about one of her Christmas memories and it made us realize just how blessed we all are. My mom always has some sort of little program on Christmas Eve and this year, I decided to make Allie and Easton sing together for it. I figure I only have a few years that Easton will actually do this kind of stuff for me! So anyway-here are my kids singing. It is only a small clip of their song -but enough that you can hear both of them. They made me cry everytime they sang this-I blame the pregnancy hormones!

I love being at my Mom's on Christmas. She has ALWAYS made Christmas so special. It is a great night for all of us and there is always lots of tears, hugging, major gift giving and laughing and I'm just nuts for my family. I am so glad that they are mine!

Mom,Dad,Grammy and Connie with all the kids...

Christmas Day
Christmas morning is always spent at our own house. Me and Paul sit up and watch White Christmas while we "wait" for Santa. (I think Paul only watches this for me-there is way too much tap dancing for him-I know it!) I'm more into the traditions of Christmas than the actual gift giving and getting. I rarely care what I get for Christmas...as long as I get to those "but we always do it" things on my list, but Santa came and everyone was SUPER happy with what he brought. It was a beautiful, "WHITE" Christmas!

"I got a toothbrush!" WHAT?! Out of everything-he went to that FIRST?! Maybe he was tired...

Come to our house and me and Allie will be baking "blueberry muffin tops" in an Easy Bake Oven! Is that not classic?!

Paul always spends the whole day assembling toys-I'm surprised he doesn't have carpal tunnel after this one...Finally....Paul will know what it is like to be warm!!I have no clue on the specs on this thing....but I know this: it is way faster, can hold a lot more pictures and it's much prettier than my old one. Santa must have thought I was very good this year! :)

Happy New Year everyone!

Gingerbread Traditions

One of our favorite traditions at Christmas time is making our Gingerbread house and Gingerbread tree. We have done this a couple of years now and it is so fun-and totally worth destroying my kitchen for! I love these few days just before Christmas-my shopping is done, presents are wrapped and now it is just a couple of days of fun and tradition! Tomorrow is "sugar-cookie day" and on Tuesday I am taking Allie to Ballet West's Nutcracker. This is her first time going to the Ballet and I can hardly wait! She even gets to meet the Sugar Plum Fairy at the end of the show. I love this time of year. Happy Holidays to everyone!!

Getting started....
Paul loves doing these-he sat up even after the kids were in bed applying hundreds of frosting icicles. He even used the word "lattice" tonight while frosting the gingerbread house. haha...I love that he enjoys this stuff as much as the kids do.

TA-DA!!!! The finished Gingerbread house. Pretty good huh?
Starting the tree....

Our 2008 Gingerbread house and tree!...