Our weekend getaway!!

So, the reason I was so surprised Ryan did so much for me for my birthday was I already had a HUGE present! Ryan bought us tickets to see WICKED!!! It was sooo fun!

Friday afternoon I took the kids to the neighbors to play for a couple of hours and then a friend came and picked them up from there and spent the night and 1/2 of Saturday watching them. It was so nice to know they were well taken care of!

Ryan and I headed for Milwaukee starting around 3. The drive was so mice. Just the two of us enjoying some quiet!! And having adult conversations. It was wonderful. We arrived and checked into our hotel and had just enough time to get ready before we left for the play Wicked.

It was WONDERFUL!! I loved it! I loved the story line, the singing, everything. It was soo cool! This was my first Broadway, so I don't have anything to compare it to, but I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. Ryan really enjoyed it was well. He actually has seen quite a few Broadways (he lived in D.C. for a short while before I met him) so it wasn't a new experience. He still really enjoyed it, but his favorite is still Les Miserable. Ryan got us AWESOME seats!! We were in the 9th row! Ahh, it was just sooo cool. There really aren't words. If you haven't been to one, you should totally go. Such a neat experience! I can't wait to go again. I don't think we'll wait so long to do something like this again. I wanted to take a bunch of pictures, but of coarse the camera died. I forgot to charge it. Oh well. Here's a picture of me by the cast list:



And I tried to take a picture of Ryan in the sky walk. They had the building lit up in green, it was pretty neat! Unfortunately I somehow pushed the wrong button and it's a video, and then the camera died, so this is all we got.



We had planed all sorts of things to do after the play, but we didn't get back to the hotel until almost midnight, so we just went to bed (I am VERY pregnant I had only 5 weeks to go when we went!) The next morning we just enjoyed sleeping in! Ryan got up at 8:30 and I slept in until 9. It was blissful!

Once we got up and dressed we went downstairs and enjoyed a nice quiet, slow breakfast. It was SOO nice. The food was yummy and the company even better :) Then we started the 4 hour drive home. Most of which I slept through :) It was a wonderful getaway and I'm so glad we were able to recharge and spend some quality time together before baby #4 gets here! We definitely need to do it again, but not wait tell I'm about to pop to do it! That totally wore me out! I had tons of contractions and swelling from all the traveling and spent a lot of Saturday and Sunday passed out. I was SO tired! But it was very much worth it!

Father's and Son's!!

July 9th Ryan took Logan on their FIRST Father's and Son's camp out!! We were all so excited. Logan LOVED every minute of it. Ryan had tons of fun too, although he could have used a little more sleep! Ryan said that Logan was just so HAPPY the whole time. He loves being outside and spending time with Dad so it was a win win! I had Ryan take the camera and he even took a few pictures for me!

I wanted a picture of them getting ready to go. Kaitlyn needed a picture taken of her first. Except she was too excited to see it to actually take the picture! She's so funny


The boys ready to go!



putting up the tent



setting up the air mattress


exploring the campgrounds




Mom and the girls stayed home. While we didn't do anything as cool as camping, we did have a great time together. As soon as the boys left I broke out a chocolate bar for each of us. Can't have a girls weekend without chocolate! Then after dinner we went and played at McDonald's play land and had some ice cream with some friends. The girls got to stay up way late and after they went to bed I watched My Sister's Keeper and bawled my eyes out. It was really good, and a nice long cry feels great sometimes. I spent the night dreaming that my children were dying of horrible diseases. Shouldn't watch movies like that when I'm pregnant! In the morning we went to a salon and I got a pedicure (thanks to some super awesome friends who got it for me for my birthday!) and the girls got their toes painted. We walked back home and got there the same time as he boys got home from camping.

Lovin the tub!!

Because of the flood we are blessed to get a master bath/closet in our house. While it has been a slow and painful process we are enjoying the benefits!! The tub is installed!! It's not finished yet, but it's in enough we can use. I LOVE it!! The kids love it, Ryan loves it. In fact the kids would take a bath twice a day if I let them. They did the first day! Here's a few pictures of the kiddos enjoying the new tub!





And yes the facet and handles don't match. The plumber took pity on a hugely pregnant woman and put in old ones while we waited for the new ones to be shipped. The new ones are in now and look beautiful.

AND it's SOOO nice to NOT have the tub in the front entry way anymore!!!

4th of July and my birthday!

This year has been such a WONDERFUL birthday! Saturday July 3rd was my birthday. Ryan and the kids woke me up with breakfast in bed by singing me Happy Birthday!! It was so cute and yummy! Ryan got me a supper cute card too. We got to go to a parade with some friends and then went to Sams and bought our closet floor, which Ryan put in that night! He also made me a cake! It was so yummy! Sunday was a great day at church and that night some friends came over and we had a yummy dinner (ribs, mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob!) and 4th of July sugar cookies and cupcakes! Ryan had Monday off, so he spent the day doing whatever I thought of. Which was mostly projects around the house! He painted the girls room, we went and got the rest of the supplies for the closet and he installed the closet for me! Poor guy worked nonstop on his vacation day just for me. Isn't he GREAT! I love that man!

Here are some of the pictures from the 4th of July parade.

Austin and Leah, this was Austin's first parade!


All the kids lined up waiting for the parade!





Cory and Austin (Amanda's camera ran out of batteries so I took some for her)


Jakie


Logan loved all the tractors!




Racing back after looking at some cute bunnies!


Thought this was cute



For Jace



Yogi


Horses



And my birthday cake!



I felt so loved on my birthday! I can't believe how many phone calls, cards, and FB well wishes came in. Thanks for making my day so special!

I was also surprised by all my husband did for me. Ryan planned an AWESOME birthday weekend for me! On the 16th-17th we (just Ryan and I!!!!) will be going to Milwaukee!! By our selves! No children! (Evan doesn't count, as he's still in utero) AND as if all that wasn't a HUGE enough present he got us tickets to see WICKED!!!! Seriously! I wouldn't have even thought to ask for that. He's so sweet and wonderful. Ryan told me about my present (we had to plan which weekend to go) before my birthday, so I wasn't expecting anything for the day of. But he went way out of his way to make it the PERFECT weekend for me. I'm so lucky! I love you babe!

Girls room!

I have been nesting a little bit, and since this is our first home I've never decorated a nursery before. So I decided to start with the girls room. They LOVE their new room! A few months ago we painted their room, but the color was too much and it needed a second coat anyway. So instead of a second coat we bought a new color. Ryan painted it as part of my birthday present! He was seriously awesome and did everything I even mentioned on my birthday weekend! But that's another post. Here are some pictures of what we've done to their room.

Ryan put up a fan, which I modge podged:





Painted the room and put up some decorations!





The butterflies are from Grandma D. She sent them for Em's birthday and we FINALLY decorated them and put them up. The girls love them. And the others are something I saw on line. I may add extra's eventually, but for now we're just doing those. I have some wall clings that will go up soon. The paint is supposed to be dry for 2 weeks before you put them up. Also the curtains are ones I made and we put up the princess corner. I don't know what you call that, but I got it at a garage sale for around a dollar. There's one more, but I think I'll put that in the play room.

I don't know where I'm going to put Em's bed once I finish painting it. Their room just keeps getting smaller! We may have to move to bunk beds soon!

For Fathers Day this year I tried to make it a little more special for Ryan. He truly is a great Father and I love him so much. A few weeks before Fathers Day I ran across a recipe that I KNEW Ryan would love, so I saved it just for him. It actually turned out really well. I'd have to say the icing was THE BEST I've had and the cake was excellent too. The kids certainly agreed about the icing! This is what I found the next morning:



They were liking all the icing left on the cake. Not that I blame them! It was that good! Here's the recipe:

Cherry Chocolate Cake
submitted by Brittany

printable recipe here
1 box of devil's food cake mix
1 (21 oz) can cherry pie filling
1 tsp almond extract
2 eggs

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 inch pan. In a large bowl, combine dry cake mix, cherry pie filling, eggs, and almond extract. Stir by hand until well blended. (Using an electric mixer will break up the cherries.) Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool.

fudge frosting
1 cup white sugar
5 Tb butter
1/3 cup milk
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

In a small saucepan, combine sugar, butter, and milk. Boil, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips until smooth. Immediately pour over partially cooled cake.

It's from this site that I love they always have super yummy breads and treats on there.

Strawberry Picking

Saturday June 5th Ryan and I took the kids to pick strawberries!! It was so fun! I was really excited cause I had never done this. The kids were pretty excited about it. Kaitlyn asked everyday if we could go again. She LOVED it!

The kids with their baskets running to the strawberries!



Picking the strawberries actually went really well. Kaitlyn picked the most and did it all by herself! Em's had to go potty so she missed out on a lot of it, but she was fine with that because there was mud (gasp!). She's such a princess, I love it. And Logan LOVED picking them too! If I would just grab em and put them in his bucket he would get upset. HE wanted to do the picking. So cute. All I had to do was point them out and he would pick them.








Logan would NOT let anyone hold his bucket! Those were his strawberries! Such a big boy, so cute!



We were only there all of 45 mins before we decided that was good. Logan and Em were ready to leave but Kaitlyn wanted to stay all day! We pick 9 1/2 lbs of strawberries! While I was checking out the kids got to sit on the huge rocking chair.




Definitely a good and fun experience. I'm glad we got to go!
We told our friends how fun and easy it was so a few of us got together on the next Friday and went picking again! This was the last day of picking (strawberry season is SHORT!) so there weren't as many good ones, but we still had a good time and got lots of strawberries. I didn't stay very long. It was supper hot and bending and being way pregos don't go so well together. The kids were happy to go again and we got to get a few more strawberries. Which was good cause we ate all the other ones!



I made strawberry freezer jam with some of the strawberries!!! It was my first time and it was SOO yummy! We've been eating pb&j's a lot more since then and it's almost all gone already!