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!