Connor and Chloe are getting a little sister

Well most of you who read this already know we have another little bun in the oven.  But for those who don't live near here or talk to us often...Today we found out we're having another girl.  Everything in the baby looks good, but I have to get a more detailed ultrasound done soon to check on something in the uterus...though I've been told not to worry about it yet, it probably isn't a big deal (gosh that was so comforting). 

I was pretty sure this one was going to be a girl.  This pregnancy has so far been identical to Chloe's...Perfect!  I haven't been sick much (puked twice).  I was tested at 12 weeks for the 1 hour glucose test (lucky me I get to do it super early and more often since I had gestational diabetes with Connor).  I have never passed the 1 hour test before, and I passed it!  I was shocked!  I go back in between 24 and 28 weeks to test again, which puts me before Thanksgiving...arg! 

Baby girl is due February 16, 2016

The Best Birthday

The original birthday dinner plan was to go out to eat at Souplantation, which happens to be my favorite place and I knew we could find something that everyone would eat there.  However, when we got home, Connor started setting the kids' picnic table with one of his blankets, plates, forks and cups.  He said he wanted to make me birthday dinner.  I thought that sounded great.  So Connor made Eggo waffles, scrambled eggs (with daddy), and got out a can of fruit cocktail.  Then he made some lemonade.  Daddy pulled up some bigger chairs as we didn't exactly fit in the little table and we had a great picnic and watched the sunset.  It seriously couldn't get any better than that.

After dinner Daddy and the kids made cherry chocolate cupcakes.   They were delicious!

Everyone sang happy birthday...except Chloe, she was a bit delayed...or else she wanted to do a solo act.

My Quiet Book is finally done!

For the time being...the quiet book that I've been working on forever is relatively done.  My sewing machine had a hard time going over the thickness of the felt and the backing and sometimes 3-4 layers of felt, so some of these I cheated and hot glued together. 
The complete pages so far are:
*Mailbox that opens with a snap and contains mail, also the flag moves up and down.
*Clock with moveable hands and velcroed numbers.
* Pizza with toppings (toppings are stored between the crust and the cheese).
*Mr and Mrs. Potato Head and the bucket of parts.
*Ice cream cone (big blue pocket on front to hold parts).
*Head with hair to braid, put clips in, etc.  Ribbon holds clips when not in the hair.
*Dump truck that holds boulders and really dumps.
*Shoe tying
*Garbage truck-the back opens, the cans open and are velcroed on.  Inside each can contains trash for the truck.  Black-trash, Blue-paper, bottle, and Green-grass and a branch with leaves.  This was my favorite one to make and I know it's going to get a lot of use from a little boy who is still fascinated with garbage trucks.

In the works but currently on the back burner are:
*tic tac toe
*barn with animals
*street scene with cars/buses
*page with zippers, buttons, buckles, etc.
I also need to figure out how I'm going to connect them together.  I tried sewing buttonholes but the fabric was too thick and the thread kept on jamming...so frustrating!

 I got several of these ideas online and then used my cricut and several cartridges to make templates and then cut out the felt.

I got the dump truck pattern from this site:
http://www.imagineourlife.com/2012/01/03/dump-truck-quiet-book-page/

Chloe turned 2

Chloe turned two last week.  We had her favorite for dinner-spaghetti

She also enjoyed a cake with blue frosting and fish sprinkles.

 She got some new kitchen utensils, clothes, purses and shoes.

We thought it was funny when Chloe was playing around with all of Connor's Lego sets...

 Connor was playing around with Chloe's purses.  We'll call that sharing :)

 Earlier this week we went to the park and had a great time.

Some fun things Chloe can say/do:

Can make the sound of just about any animal

Puts shoes on by herself...especially loves everyone else's shoes

Enjoys dressing herself...often walks around with someone's socks on her feet and random items on her head.

Loves hats

Loves doggies...chases them at the park...pets them and then walks away

Loves noodles, lunch meat, berries in general, bread, popcorn, crackers, will ask for cookies-cocos, but rarely eats them.

Wants to sit on the potty...for 5 seconds, drop paper and flush

She likes doing "pop up"= cooking in the toaster and watching it jump up when it's done

She likes being wherever Connor is...much to his dismay...she's already started the art of wrestling, which he does not like.  

Loves puzzles, cars, trucks, BUSES, trains-"woo woo ch ch ch"

Likes telephones-"huh-wo?"

Loves to dig in the dirt, get muddy, make a royal mess, but when she spills water/juice on her shirt she wants to be cleaned up right away-"mess, wet"-while tugging at shirt

No fear or anything, which makes mom and dad fear everything

Yellowstone

July 5th around 6:30am we set off for Yellowstone.  It was our family and my dad.  We drove to Drew and Emily's house getting in around 10pm.  The kids enjoyed playing with each other until about midnight and then we pulled out our sleeping bags and had a sleepover on their family room floor.  Abby-3 and Colby-5 joined us in their sleeping bags too.

July 6th, Monday morning we visit a little bit and then set off for Yellowstone around 10am.  We arrived in the evening, set up our tent, built a campfire and had dinner, some dessert and then went to bed.  That night there was a huge lightening and thunder rain storm.  The kids slept right through it, though it was bright and very loud.

July 7th, Tuesday morning we got up, showered (Oh yes, the campsites had the most wonderful showers ever!)  Then we took down our tent and supplies to head to the next campsite.  On our way we stopped and looked at bison

 They were a little too close for comfort for me.  But Peter insisted on a picture.

 We looked at this waterfall from a couple different angles on different days.

 It was beautiful

 Then we saw a mother bear and a cub playing in the grass.

 Whenever bears were spotted the traffic would back up and there would be several rangers nearby either directing traffic or people.
July 7-9 we stayed at one campsite and went and saw a lot of animals, geysers, mudpots, etcs.  We paid to stay through the 10th, but it was cold and rainy and I was done with camping, so we left a day early to head back to Utah.

A bunch of female elk snoozed on this big grassy area.

 You can add snake to list of animals we saw...he's well camouflaged in the middle of the picture below.

 Bison walking down the middle of the road...actually leading traffic.  This was an interesting sight to see.  My picture of it passing us was super blurry.

 More elk- this one was nursing a baby at one point.

 Old Faithful erupts

 After watching Old Faithful we walked along a trail to see more geysers.   This one was bubbling.

 This was called the Grand Geyser (I think). It was awesome.  We walked along a path and saw a bunch of people sitting around this one.  We asked what they were all there for and they said it was supposed to erupt at between 10:30 and 11:30 and it hadn't gone off yet.  We were told it was way more impressive than Old Faithful.  We sat down, enjoyed a little snack and waited too.  Then Connor announced he had to go Potty.  Peter took him further along the trail, while Chloe, Grandpa and I waited for the Grand.  At around 1:20ish it erupted and it definitely was Grand!  Water and steam went 150-200 feet in the air consistently for about 10 minutes. 

 Then we continued on the path to see the Morning Glory Pool.

 Grotto Geyser-Above, Midway Geyser-Below

 Grand Prismatic Spring

 Fishing Cone Geyser

Abyss Pool

 Paint Pots

 Herds of Bison everywhere....and crossing the road

 The Dragon's Mouth

 Mud Volcano

 Bison were everywhere!

 A mother bear and her two cubs devour a carcass.

 Male elk

 A pretty waterfall

 Mommy and kiddos

 Connor

We had a great time.  All in all we saw 5 black bears, 2 grizzly bears, a snake, a lot of elk and bison.  We also saw an osprey nest.  We went back to Utah on Friday night.  Saturday morning Peter, Grandpa, the kids, Drew and his kids and Peter's Grandpa went to the Air Force Base and looked at airplanes.  Janet, Emily and I went to Connie's house and made cards, then we went shopping at Gymboree and got some cute clothes for kids.  The kids played on a slip and slide and a pool until they were sufficiently cold.  Then Emily and the kids had a birthday party to go to.  We went out to dinner at Toucanos, then explored the mall.  We went to Build A Bear-Connor built a Minion and Chloe built a monkey.

Sunday morning we said our goodbyes and headed home.  We arrived home Monday morning at 12:30am.

We had a great trip, but we're glad to be back at home where it's nice and warm.

The Last Few Weeks

Connor has been taking swimming lessons at the local high school.  He's had a great time and can't wait to take more.  The first session I could see him quite easily and could hear his teacher teaching him how to have superman arms, scooping the water, putting his face into the water while swimming, blowing bubbles, etc.  This last session however, he practiced on the opposite side of the pool and I had wrangle Chloe in the bleachers.  We watched a little bit, but not much.


Meanwhile Chloe has been loving her hats or really anything that fits on her head.  While shopping for more shorts for her, she put a pair on her head and everyone thought she was adorable....and she was, I just wish my phone was working at the time so I could've captured it.


Chloe is also really into shoes.  She likes having shoes with her, not so much having them on, just with her.  The first two pictures she had just woken up, grabbed her hat, shoes, Connor's hat and snuggled up with my big bear in Connor's room.  Need to have the necessities in the morning.

Other things:

The past couple of months we had birds building a nest right outside our front door.  Then all of a sudden there were more than two heads sticking out.  There were actually two babies that never made a sound.  Then this week they flew away.  We'll probably see them again next year.  This is the second time this pair of birds have built a nest right next to our front door.

 We've kept busy playing with fuse beads.  We also made play dough and have played nearly every morning with it.

 Then we decided to clean the walls.  Chloe wanted a cleaner, then Connor did too, so I put them to work scrubbing their hand prints off the walls and doors.  The house looked wonderful and then some bright mommy made graham crackers with chocolate frosting for a treat and gave them to her kiddos.  Chloe walked up the stairs when she was done and left a hand print every couple of steps up the wall.

 I zoomed in on this one.

 Our garden has been doing pretty well.  We have more cherry tomatoes than we can possibly eat (red, orange and yellow pear varieties), we have enjoyed radishes, green, purple and yellow beans, bell peppers, cucumbers, yellow crookneck squash, onions, strawberries, and blackberries.  We pick about 20-30 strawberries daily from our front yard.  Connor yesterday said, "Strawberries for dinner again?!"  I think he's getting tired of them, but Chloe isn't complaining.  She gobbles them right off the plant.

 Hidden within the tomato plants are zucchini plants, but so far we haven't had much luck.  They might not be getting enough sunlight.  There's also cilantro growing in the front and carrots in one of the boxes.

 We also have one butternut squash plant.  We are eagerly awaiting for this to be ready.  There are a couple more tiny ones on the plant too.  We also planted corn on the cob, so we'll see if anything grows from them.

 One of our fun cucumbers

 Connor has been refusing to take a nap since we got off from school, though he's clearly tired.  Today after playing outside and getting thoroughly dirty, he showered, changed his clothes and then promptly fell asleep at the top of the stairs with a small fire truck.