Surprise!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope everyone is having a great time. We have had a great time, but I'll write about that another day. So it is official our little family of 4 is growing. I am pregnant and baby number 3 is due Aug. 19th. We are very excited and a little nervous about our new addition. Ryan REALLY REALLY REALLY wants a boy. He feels there is too much estrogen in the house. I think why ruin a good thing? We're good at girls, plus I'm terrified of having a boy. Lol. I really do want another girl, but I'll be happy for Ryan if he gets his boy. This means that Julia and I get to be pregnant together! Coarse she's much further along. If this one is a boy then he'll be happy cause all of his cousins are boys! Julia's baby is a boy and Mindy already has 3. I guess it would be fun, maybe I can have a boy. I guess we'll see in a few months. Merry Christmas all!

Catch up, again

So lots happened since the last time I blogged. Unfortunately I have a pretty bad memory so I really only blog about the things I take pictures of. The rest gets lost somewhere up in my head. I do know it has snowed TONS and the snow hasn't melted yet. I actually have helped shovel the driveway 3 times already. I was pretty proud of myself the first time. I felt like supper mom. Ryan couldn't shovel before work, so I thought I'd surprise him by shoveling the whole driveway for him! So I bundled the girls and I up and we went outside. Emily just cried the whole time, until I put her in bed and she went to sleep. Kaitlyn wasn't even almost interested in playing in the snow (she must get that from me). She just wanted to help mom shovel. We got half the driveway finished and then she realized that she could run strait out into the street. And she did, like three times in a row before I gave up and we came inside. So I only got half finished, but Ryan was still pretty impressed when he got home. I have to say it is a lot of work! It's not easy to lift that shovel full of snow and throw it wherever it goes. I think we are going to have to invest in a snow blower in a few years. I'd say now, but they're like $400! We've made a couple of friends in this town (yea!) So one of the weeks we were house bound we invited friends to come and play with us a couple of times. The first one was a family with 2kids each just older than my 2. They all get along well and have lots of fun, so we like to hang out with them. Her husband is a preacher for a church in town. It's so interesting to get to know how that all works (our church has a lay ministry-they don't get paid). I don't think I've ever known a preachers wife. It has been really fun getting to know them. And it's nice because they have the same standards as us. Unfortunately we just found out they are moving to Missouri just after Christmas, so we are bummed about that, but it's a good opportunity for their family. The church there has a parish (sp?) which means they'll have a house to live in. So different. Anyway when they were over, Isabelle the girl about a year older than Kaitlyn and Kaitlyn had fun playing dress up and then playing in her toy boxes. I couldn't get the two of them still long enough for a picture, so this is the best I could get.



Pretty sad, but you can almost see Isabelle. They also have a little boy that's a few months younger than Kaitlyn. His name is Isaiah. He is SO cute. He's Kaitlyn's age, but he's very short and not chunky, so it looks so cute when he walks around. He looks like a skinny 8 mo. old baby that can run and play like Kaitlyn. Poor kid though, Kaitlyn just takes everything away from him and bullies him a little. Later that week we had the Stauders over. Danni (the mom) is one of those women who never stops moving. She has 3 children, The oldest (Emily) is a kindergartner, but Danni home teaches her and she is as smart as like a 3rd grader, it's amazing, then she has Noah who is a home school preschooler and is at least up to kindergarten level, plus little Lilly who's Kaitlyn's age. Not only does she have very smart kids, that she teaches herself, but she also always has a clean house. AND she is the president or runner (I'm not sure of the title) of MOPS, a group I go to once a month. MOPS stands for mothers of preschoolers. We (the moms) have a discussion, a guest speaker, an art project, and food, while the children are in other age appropriate rooms with child care provided. She does all of this plus little field trips (educational of coarse) for her kids. She's amazing. So anyway, I'm sure she wouldn't care, but I feel like the house has to be clean and everything in order before I invite her over. That doesn't happen very often! Usually I just go over to her house. But this time I had her come over. I was so proud of myself. I had the house clean (as long as you didn't look in the bedrooms or at the dirty dishes) and I had an activity in mind for the kids. Pretty amazing. So anyway they came over and we all had a great time. My project for the kids was making gingerbread houses. I got Gram crackers and icing for the kids. They each had a little container of icing and pretty much just ate it as a snack. I figured that would be how it went, but we had fun anyway. Emily and I made little houses and then ate them.






And for the random pictures of the day. Kaitlyn likes to find interesting and new ways to eat her food. This particular morning she was putting Kix on her toes and then using her toes as a spoon to eat them. Crazy girl.





Here is Kaitlyn dressing up like Daddy! She is such a Daddy's girl.

December

It’s hard to believe that it’s already December, even with all the SNOW outside. It has already snowed 3 times here in Lancaster. I have to admit I was not one bit sad to miss the first one while we were in Texas. It had even all melted by the time we got back. We defiantly have been here for the last two though. On Friday we got a call from the Relief Society president saying church was to be canceled on Sunday due to the storm coming in. I don’t think I’ve heard of church being canceled in advance before, but it defiantly was a good thing. We got a huge storm on Sat. It snowed for the first part and then turned to freezing rain. Which meant there was a layer of snow and then a layer of ice on everything! It made shoveling much harder for poor Ryan and our upstairs neighbor. On Sunday we went outside to play in it. Kaitlyn was so excited and Emily was just kind of like whatever. We bundled everyone up and headed out doors. It was the weirdest feeling because normally when you step in snow you sink down a few inches right away, but because of the ice in was delayed. So you’d step down and then a few seconds later you would sink a few inches. Very interesting feeling. Anyway Kaitlyn didn’t really know what to do. It was hard to walk and you couldn’t play with the snow, but she managed to have a good time before coming in. Here’s some pictures of us braving the weather. (there was a bitter cold wind that afternoon)






A close up of Kaitlyn’s snow pants booty. Ryan and I got a kick out of this!



My husband looking super handsome as he shoveled our driveway! The first ones my favorite.





Yesterday (Tuesday) during the evening we got another layer of snow. 6 more inches. Pretty crazy. Ryan was supposed to drive up to Prarie for a meeting last night. I was very glad they found somene in Prarie to go. Ryan wasn't too worried about it but just thinking of sending him out in that storm for a 45 (in good weather) min drive made my chest squeese together and I couldn't breathe very well. So I said a huge thanks to Heavenly Father when another priesthood holder was able to go instead.

On Saturday we put up our Christmas tree and decorations. It was really fun. Last year my aunt Sheri gave me a bunch of PURPLE tree decorations. I LOVE them. Purple is by far my favorite color. So we have a very cool purple tree this year.
It’s a little fuzzy, but you can see the pretty purple bows.



I also decorated our mantle. I love having one. My favorite Christmas decorations are nativities. I LOVE them. I so want a particular one my mom has from when I grew up. It never was quite Christmas until it was set up. Over the past 3 Christmas’ I have been slowly collecting some. I’m proud to say I have 3 already. And I love them all. So here’s our Christmas mantle.



Kaitlyn had fun playing with the stockings before I put them up. She decided to wear them so I got a quick picture.



Kaitlyn discovered that if she dumped all the toys out of one of the toy bins, it makes a perfect play toy. This entertained her for quite a while.





And another thing turned into a toy. I had cleaned this out and given it to her to use a drum, but she found a much more fun use for it.



And I don’t feel like I post enough pictures of Emily so here’s a couple.

What a look




Enjoy!

Fun stuff from November

Kaitlyn has some great morning hair. I think she could win prizes, it’s that crazy. Hum, maybe I should send a picture into bed head and she could be the spokeswoman, spokesbaby? Anyway here’s a cute picture of my favorite bed head.



Kaitlyn had so much fun painting her pumpkin at the beginning of November, I thought we should just paint. She was VERY upset that paint goes on paper and not your face. She flatly refused to paint the paper. I think she thought it was like makeup.




So, I’m going to toot my own horn for a min. Back in the beginning of the month when I thought we weren’t going home for Thanksgiving, I was a little panicked about making a turkey, I had never even roasted a Chicken. So I decided to start out by trying a Chicken. We had the missionaries over for dinner and I made a chicken with real gravy (my favorite part) and mashed potatoes. It was so yummy! I’m so proud of myself. Now I know I can do it and won’t be so scared when it comes time to make my own Turkey. Here’s a very proud me with my Chicken.



So Emily has been working very hard at crawling, all month long. Poor girl, she just can’t figure out the hands. She works so hard on it everyday. It’s very cute and sad at the same time. It usually ends in quite a few tears of frustration. If you look closely you can see the tears and frustration.





Emmy cuddling with her daddy, they are so cute!



The girls being silly

We have a two year old!!! Happy Birthday Kaitlyn!

Kaitlyn turned two on Tuesday the 27th. Because we had just returned to Wisconsin around 1am Monday morning, we didn’t do a huge birthday party for her. She did however, have a great birthday. Tuesday morning she got to put on a birthday outfit from Grandma D, and then we headed over to play group. She had a great time playing with some friends and they even sang Happy Birthday to her. Mom and Emily were in the next room getting shots for Emily, so we missed the song.  Afterwards we came home and had lunch and naps. Then Kaitlyn got to help mom make cupcakes! She thought it was so fun. Mom, was a little stressed trying to keep things going. She also got to help make dinner and eat some olives, which she LOVES.



Doesn’t she make eating olives look like heaven?



When Ryan got home from work, we ate some dinner and then opened up presents. Grandma sent a box over, and I had fun wrapping them all up. Here’s Kaitlyn with her b-day presents.



After that we packed everyone in the car and drove to Prairie (45 mins.) Ryan is ward mission leader and our branch has just started a Tuesday evening study session. Branch members bring their friends and they can ask questions and find answers. Well, this was the very first one, so we all went. Kaitlyn’s nursery leader and probably her favorite teen in all of Wisconsin was there, so she was in heaven. She got to play with her before it started. While they were having their meeting Kaitlyn and I went and frosted and decorated the cupcakes. She found some salt and pepper in the kitchen area and decorated her cupcake. She didn’t think it tasted to good. Lol, live and learn. She did like putting the real sprinkles on the cupcakes, but I had to keep hiding the salt and pepper because she really wanted to put it on her cupcakes. Oh well. The missionaries and teenagers that were there that evening really enjoyed the cupcakes, so did Ryan, Kaitlyn, and I. They also sang Happy Birthday to Kaitlyn, but she wasn’t very happy about that! Here’s our cupcakes. Yummm, they were good!




I didn’t have the camera that night, but we didn’t decorate all of them, so she got to do it again on Wednesday. If you look closely you can see her fingerprint in the cupcake.



Her favorite part was eating the sprinkles afterward



And the customary frosting covered face birthday pictures, she’s definitely not as messy this year.




After that we stopped at Wal-Mart to get her a fish. Unfortunately that Wal-Mart didn’t have any. Oh well. That meant Kaitlyn got to celebrate two days in a row. So Wednesday we packed up the girls and drove to Platteville to get her birthday fish. She really had a good time, and especially liked holding her fish.







She liked getting to pick out her fishies. She got two, since they were like 18 cents, and because she is now 2.
In a sad note, today one of the fish went belly up and went down the toilet. It was a little sad. I was pretty nervous about getting a fish because when I was younger we babysat somebody’s fish and it too did not last very long. I couldn’t even watch when Ryan got rid of it. Partly because I felt bad for my part in it’s shortened life and also because I didn’t want to see an animal in my toilet. I have an irrational fear that one day something will be in there and touch my bum. I didn’t think seeing a fish would help. Lol, I know I’m crazy.
So there you go. Kaitlyn is now 2. How crazy is that!

Happy Thanksgivin!

It’s a little late, but oh well. We had a very good Thanksgiving this year. Ryan told me way in advance that we weren’t going to be able to go home for Thanksgiving. As it got closer and closer I got more and more bummed. I’m just not ready to do the holidays on our own yet. Well Ryan’s dad was flying in from the Philipines (he’s been gone for 6 months) the day before Thanksgiving, so I thought it would be great to go and surprise him! Well Ryan couldn’t argue with that, and every thing worked out at work so we were able to go to Texas!! Yea! Why hadn’t you heard about this before? I usually post if I’m going to Texas. Well we decided to surprise EVERYONE for Thanksgiving. The only 2 who knew were my mom and Ryan’s sister Katrina (because she was coming from out of town). We left Tuesday evening and drove all night to get to Texas in the morning. We drove through Des Monies and stopped at COURTNEY’S to take a short rest and visit. (Sorry all you Des Moinians, we would have loved to have stopped at every ones houses! But we couldn’t) We went to my mom’s first. It was about 7 or 8 in the morning and we just walked up and rang the doorbell. My Dad answered and he just stood there shocked for a minute then said, give me my grandbabies with a huge grin. Then Jace came out to met us and Jessica came racing down the stairs. It was so cute. We got to go up and wake up Kurtis and Tiara who were both excited to see us. I can’t believe mom was able to keep it a secret from everyone, but she did. Good job Mom! Ryan and I went to bed while the girls stayed up and played with Grandma and their aunts and uncles. Later I heard quite a few Kaitlyn stories from while we were sleeping. She was making up for all those hours in the car by…lets call it exploring. She was into EVERYTHING. Good thing mom and dad were sleeping. :) Mom D (Ryan’s mom) left to go pick up Ryan’s dad around 3 and we went to the house soon after she left. Ryan’s brother Shawn was home and saw us before we could even get out of the car. He came running out of the house and practically tackled Ryan. Then Ryan went and hid the car while we waited for Mom D to get back. While we were waiting Shawn called Mindy (Ryan’s sister) and came up with a reason for them to come over. We waited in the door way until they came in. Mindy was very surprised too. Collin and Cameron (Mindy’s boys) were very excited to see their cousins., Austin too- he’s the baby. They had fun playing until Grandma and Grandpa got home. Grandma’s reaction was THE BEST!!! I got all the family members reactions on video tape, but hers was definitely the best. She Screamed, she was so excited, and then Emily started to cry. It was hilarious! I might send it into Americas Funniest Home Videos. I’m gonna have Ryan put it up on our blog. After that we went out to eat and meet Katrina and her husband there. And finally after dinner we went back to my parents to surprise Julia (my sister) who had arrived while we were gone. Unfortunetly she had already found out. It’s so hard for young girls to keep such a big secret, they did try though. Julia tells about it HERE. The rest of the weekend was filled with yummy food, family, black Friday shopping (wahoo!) and great fun. It went by WAY to fast. I wasn’t ready to leave when it was time to go, at least I knew we’d be going back for Christmas. I didn’t get very many pictures, but I did get these. This is Emily and Kaitlyn with their Aunts (my sisters) Tiara and Jessica.




I want to apologize to all my friends in Texas, we would have loved to visit everyone, maybe set up a party or something, but we didn’t want to spoil the surprise. I will get something together for Christmas. I want to see everyone’s babies and bellies!
On the way home we were very blessed. We stopped in Des Moines again to stretch our legs and visit Sarah and her family, so we just missed a HUGE accident outside of Debuke. We saw it on the news the next day and there was a mother of 3 who didn’t make it. So thanks to the Hastings (and everyone else, who I know would have loved to have us stop in!) for letting us relax for a few minutes and helping Heavenly Father keep our family safe. We did however have to sit in the traffic and after 45 min of not moving we turned around and found another way home. We didn’t get in until 1 am, I felt so bad for Ryan who had to go to work the next day.
That was our Thanksgiving, how was yours?

Bunch of random thoughts

Guess what I just found out about! Google reader, it is so cool. If you don’t already know it’s a site that checks all your friends’ blogs for you and tells you which have new posts. It’s FREE and really nice. It has already saved me a ton of time. Lol, maybe now I’ll actually put new posts up, instead of just looking at everyone’s site. Maybe, we’ll see.

So, I wanted to post about my anniversary. Ryan and I have been married for 3 years now. So crazy, it seems like much longer and much shorter at the same time. We have been there for each other through a lot all ready; moving to Iowa, what we affectionately call my CRAZY days (I was on the pill, I will NEVER do that again!), three years of law school, which included, getting engaged, getting married, getting pregnant (way better than being on the pill!) having a baby out of state on vacation (surprise! Here come Kaitlyn!) Ryan having to fly back to Iowa for finals (and missing 2 weeks of his newborns life, that sucked!), getting pregnant again (yea), having a baby (Ah, Emily always so calm, just like the delivery) me being in and out of the hospital like 6 times in 3 months (I think I was WAY over stressed among other things) then having a baby blessing and graduation (yea! Good job babe!) and getting ready to move to Wisconsin all at once, moving to Wisconsin, Ryan taking the bar, Ryan passing the bar (YEA!!!), and Ryan starting to work for real (yea!), and now looking for our first house. It’s been a busy, crazy, wonderful 3 years. I love my husband so much! I couldn’t have done it with anyone else.
Ryan you are my rock. You’re amazing, funny, a great husband and father, incredibly good looking, have a strong and wonderful testimony, and protect and take care of me and the girls so well. I love you so much.
So our anniversary was October 16. We actually got to go on a date!!!! Yes! That is a rare occurrence for us. Ryan got off work really early, so he came home and spent the afternoon with me and the girls. Then we all went out to dinner together at a really yummy Chinese place in town, then we came home and got ready for our date. The girls stayed home with a babysitter and we went to a movie and then went shopping together. We almost had the entire theatre to ourselves. Two other people came in just after the movie started, I was a little bummed, but decided we could share. Darn it. Lol, just kidding. We both really had a nice time. It was great to go out and spend time with my family and then get alone time with my husband. It was a great anniversary.

Well lots has been going on. Here’s some more fun happenings at the Dalton home! Emily is officially sitting now. She is so cute and growing up so quickly! She wants to crawl so badly! I wouldn’t be surprised if she did it before Thanksgiving. So a while ago Kaitlyn had an …um, lets go with adventurous day. When I went to get her out of bed that morning she handed me her poop. What is it with this kid and poop? I don’t know. So I had a wonderful mess to clean up. Then later in the day I was in the living room and Kaitlyn was in her bed room playing, I thought. All of a sudden I heard the sond of the toilet seat opening and hitting the back of the seat. Normally we keep that door closed, well for this reason! So I heard that and thought, oh crap, and ran as fast as I could. This is what I found:



She was so proud of herself too. I barely got her in her room and the door shut before I burst into laughter! An entire box of tampons in the toilet, who would have thought that. Lol, gotta love kids. I’m just glad it was something I’m not really attached too. If it had been a Stephanie Meyer book getting wet again, I would have lost my lid! Oh, the adventures of my Kaitlyn. She certainly keeps me on my toes. So I recently rearranged the girls room, and when I did we found something pretty cool in there.




Yes that is a light switch with in Kaitlyns reach. I don’t think I could have bought her a cooler toy. She loves that she can turn the light on and off whenever she wants. Even if that’s during an Emily diaper change. Oh well, if it keeps her entertained and is safe, why not.

For this one you have to know my sister Julia. She is awesome. Her and I are actually just like Kaitlyn and Emily. We are the two oldest in our family and we are spaced the same apart, 16 months. I’m the older one. Anyway, growing up we have always teased Julia about her booty. We got this adorable picture of Emily. And I have to say, Aunt Julia, I think you have some competion!



Latley Ryan’s been stnding Em up and shaking her booty while singing I’ve got an Aunt Julia booty, Aunt Julia booty, Aunt Julia booty. It’s so cute and funny! We love you Julia!
Julia is also a really good cheerleader (well maybe not at the moment. I don’t think you can do a back flip while pregnant!) so I was playing with Kaitlyn and started teaching her how to do the cheer lift (sorry Jules, I don’t know what it’s really called). Kaitlyn loves it and she looks like a cute little cheerleader. I guess both girls are going to get something from their Aunt Julia.

P.S. Happy Birthday to both my sisters Julia and Mindy who had birthday's last week. We love and miss you both!