Growing a Baby is Hard Work

We are thrilled & excited and wondering what life with 3 kids will be like...but oh so happy to find out come early October.

It has been hard work to get to this point.  This pregnancy has been especially difficult and I spent the first  16 1/2 weeks very sick. We've mentioned before that we are living in our dream house--but part of that is the location of being close to many good families.  We are just down the street from three other families in our church ward.  There were many afternoons that a phone call or a text was made by me and these good friends would show up, take the girls, and save them from either fending for themselves (Abigail perfected her skills in reaching for things in the pantry and working the Apple tv) or another macaroni and cheese dinner and an afternoon of t.v.  There were other times that dinner was brought by--just because. When Tyler traveled for work I don't think there was ever a trip that passed without someone bringing dinner to our family. Other friends came and literally cleaned my house and did ironing.  I spent most of the first 16 weeks in bed or on the couch and many others put in a lot of hard work to help keep our house running.  Tyler took over---well, almost everything-- cooking, cleaning, making lunches and dinner, doing all the grocery shopping, entertaining the girls, and taking care of me.  I was able to contribute here and there--but-- Tyler really stepped it up.  

So, growing a baby has been hard work--but not just by my body, but a wonderful husband and many many good friends.

Thankfully--20 weeks into this pregnancy I am feeling good and enjoying the kicks this little guy seems to love to share with me.

Discovering

The thing with moving into a new home last July is that we had no idea what was what when it came to the existing plants, what would come back, and what would be new. So this spring has been full of discovering. Discovering new bulbs, being delighted by plants that appear and plants that blossom that we had no idea would or if they would blossom.  This past fall and winter we kind of of just guessed what things needed cutting back and then hoped for the best. 

 We have no idea what kind of flower this is, but we're okay with that.  Just look at its beauty.

 When we took our daily "lets see what bloomed" walk I was thrilled to see yellow roses. My mom said it was definitely a sign that we picked the right house. I agree!

 More roses.

 Tyler counted and we have more than 10 azalea bushes in our front and back yard.

 Again, another mystery flower-- its a keeper.

A view of the back yard.

Easter Dresses

Easter 2014

Lucy 3&1/2 (the 1/2 part has become quite important these days) and Abigail 5& 3/4

Abigail turned 5....a while ago (August actually)

Abigail knew exactly what she wanted: a Fairy Queen Birthday Party. Fairy Queen you ask? Yes, Fairy Queen. What's a Fairy Queen party? Don't worry--Abigail explained every detail of how the day should go and so it turned out just how she dreamed.

 Fairy wings lined the mantle for each fairy princess as they arrived. 

Purpleicious...aka Lucy.

 Each fairy being sprinkled (aka sprayed) with gold sparkly fairy dust.

All of our party guests! Such wonderful friends to Abigail.

We were so blessed and lucky that Katerina, a young woman from church, could come be our resident artist. She is amazing!! She face painted each of the girls faces with whatever they wanted-- no request was too small or big. She was wonderful.

 This isn't a great picture--but Abigail had a crown painted on her forehead.

 Searching for their hidden fairies in our game of "Find the Fairy".

I forgot to take pictures, but soon after the girls arrived each girl got to decorate butterflies with jewels.

 Each girl got a turn being the Fairy Queen on the "throne"--watching the other girls dance and handing out compliments. As the girls took turns being the "Queen" a gold crown (thank you Pinterest inspiration) was placed upon their head. They loved it! There was dancing, dancing, and more dancing until they were all danced out.

 The Lunch Spread

 Fruit Fairy Wands.

 This was the only decision that we had a major influence on....the cake had to be chocolate. Abigail thought she wanted vanilla...but we knew it she really wanted chocolate. Thank you Costco.

And they all played happily ever after!

Changes

Yes--both girls are in ballet costumes--don't your little girls live in costumes too?

We love this house. It is the first house Tyler and I bought. It is the house where we brought Abigail home to in 2008 and Lucy home to in 2010.  It is where their first steps were taken. It is where we planted our first garden together. It is where Tyler installed his first back splash when we updated our kitchen--we love that back splash. We've dreamed many dreams in this house and many dreams have come true in this house. There are so many great things about this house--I could go on and on.

But...

We want more room and our dream house in our dream neighborhood came on the market and so through so many little miracles and blessings our dream house became ours less than 24 hours after walking through it and we move at the end of July. More about the dream house to come.

Abigail's First Day of Preschool

Abigail started preschool today.  She was beyond excited.  We love her preschool and her teachers are darling and enthusiastic.  She came home bubbly as ever and I know this is going to be a great year.

Her "first day of school outfit"

Abigail with one of her teachers

Learning Hour

Some time ago (I know--it's been a long time since I've last posted) I started "Learning Hour" for Abigail and her cute friend Chloe. "Learning Hour" is simply that-- an hour each week that we get together and dedicate to letter learning.  Having a name like "Learning Hour" just makes it all the more fun and official and suddenly instead of feeling like I was making Abigail sit down with me, it became fun and exciting for her and even better to have a friend there too.  For me, it has been a wonderful experience to be "teaching" again and to do something that I love.

Abigail and Chloe painting toilet paper rolls that turned into Octopuses 

Every week we learn a letter (we started with the letters in their name and then moved on from there) and its sound, read a book where that letter sound was a predominant theme, practiced writing the letter in various ways (dry erase board, making it with popsicle sticks, magna-doodle, and so on), and then did some sort of letter page.

 I've kept all of the pages we've made in a binder and over time we've almost made an alphabet book of our own.

Chloe and Abigail eating "O" shaped things like Oranges

Practicing writing

They love these little clipboards and small pads of paper

"F" is for flour

F is for Frog

It has been really fun for me to think of different activities they can be involved in and to sometimes even dig through my old files for ideas.  There is something else besides "fun" though that these little learning hours have accomplished for me--not sure how to quite describe it except to say it has been really very good.

It has also been really fun to have that one-on-one time (or two on one time) with Abigail and her sweet friend.  We've tried to do Learning Hour during Lucy's nap so we really do get an uninterrupted hour of learning.  Then when the hour is done--the girls just enjoy playing together.

Lucy woke up for this "Fairy" fun of "F is for Fairies".  I love that Lucy kind of looks like a fairy here in her pink everything.

 These two really are such sweet and wonderful friends.