Abi expecting

Yesterday Abi and I were hanging out in the front room and she arched her back out and puffed her stomach out as far as it would go.

"Look Momma! I have a baby in my tummy too." she said.

"You do?"

"Yeah! I have a boy in my tummy and you have a girl in your tummy."

"Really?"

"Yeah!" and from there she went on to tell me their names which I won't mention since they are the two we are thinking of and I don't want to ruin the surprise! I thought this was hilarious.

ABC Giveaway

If you are looking for a really fun curriculum for teaching your preschool aged kid... ABC&123 is having a great giveaway. Check it out here.

I finally finished!

I have had this fabric for over two years, I have had these curtains on my to do list for a few months, I have been working on them slowly for two weeks, I have been working on them diligently all weekend. Last night I FINALLY finished them!
YAY.
They aren't professional quality but I feel good about them.

Random moments of the week

Wednesday we had play group here. John always heads straight for our movies to see which one he wants to 'borrow'. He asked if we could watch the Little Einsteins safari so he could look at all the animals. After a while of playing I let them each have a little bowl of fruit snacks and sit on the couch to watch it. I just think this picture is so funny with Gabe in his lion costume.

Friday, we were leaving to meet some friends at the park and I saw this momma duck and her little babies crossing the road a few houses down. Abi and I ran over to get a picture.
Right after I took this one....

I noticed this little guy (thank goodness I didn't step on him- he was right next to my foot.)

He had been left behind. I was so sad. I wondered as I watched the mom and the rest of the little ducks get farther and farther away if I should try to pick him up and take him over to them but then I just wasn't sure if that would cause him more trouble or not so I just watched.
Suddenly the mommy turned around. He started making little noises, she quacked, and started looking for him. They all waited for him to catch up. I thought it was amazing how she knew with all those little babies that one was missing!
Here is the reunited family...

We stopped to get a picnic for the park and Abi was so thrilled to find a kids sized cart. She had so much fun being the one to push it around the store. You'll notice she is wearing her Little Red Riding Hood cape. She wore it to the park the whole time.

Abi's yellowish-white room

Really, it's just yellow but Abi wanted a yellowish-white room so that's what we call it. We've been feeling bad about Abi's room ever since she started crying (yes, literally crying) about it and saying she wanted white walls again. It has been almost a year since we had painted it. At first we were a little frustrated because Doug worked so hard drawing on the stripes and it wasn't cheap- but now that we have changed her room we totally get it.
When you walk from her yellow room back into her old room it feels so closed in and dark. I am so glad we changed it.
Tuesday after Doug's parents left we spent the rest of the afternoon painting her room. She loved that she even got to help.

She is so happy with the results and the room is really coming together. I'll post more pics when it is completely done.

Monday and Tuesday

For the remainder of their visit Doug's parents helped us with a bunch of projects around the house.
His mom was able to venture where I dare not tread and talk Doug into moving his computer area into our room so that the baby could have its own room (even though that is months away). So, first we had to move all of the computer stuff into our room so that we could move Abi into the old computer room (she has been begging to not have the pink and green walls anymore so we decided to paint it yellow and move her room while we were at it)
Our room is way too big and because of this it ends up being a place where everything ends up that has no other place. We weren't sure quite what to do with some of my things that were in there to make room for Doug's stuff so Doug's mom came up with the idea of creating a 'library' at the top of the stairs on the the little landing.
Doug painted it this Colonial Brick Red color, we took the shelves off my desk and attached them to my dresser and moved this and two other book shelves out there and voila- a library!

As soon as I can find a little chair I am going to stick it in there so we have somewhere to sit and read comfortably and I would like to stain the little shelf darker so it will match the wood of the other two pieces.
We also painted one accent wall blue in our bedroom - don't mind the turmoil of the picture... I will put up more of the finished rooms when we are all put back together. I love the calm peaceful feeling the blue creates.

We needed a flag too so they brought us one that has flown over their house. We thought that was pretty special and love having a flag flying on our house.

On Tuesday morning as one last little parting gift, Doug and his parents cleaned our basement. It has never looked this good. I am, truth be told, terrified of our basement because I found a dead mouse down there once a couple of years ago and there are always spiders. So, I hate going down which ends up in me throwing things down the stairs and making a mess. It's really embarrassing.. don't judge me! So, it is amazing now to go down and see a clean and organized space!! Thanks guys for your hard work!
This visit was an incredibly full four days and we were all exhausted (and still are) from all the work but we love the improvements and changes so much and loved spending time with them!

Sunday

On Sunday we waited for Doug's parents to pick us up (Abi was so excited!) She was wearing this dress for the first time and unfortunately it was already too short. We decided to let her wear it anyway and then piled it away with the other hand me downs in case we have another girl someday.

Church was pretty funny since Doug's mom is on the General Young Women's board. The bishop announced her being there and that night she gave a fireside for the youth. It was really great.
After dinner and before heading out to the fireside, Grandfather and Grammy and Daddy had a nice little tea party with Abi.

Saturday night

After eating at the Rainforest Cafe we went back to Doug's parents hotel (or as Abi called it, "The north pole"- we have no idea....) and drove home. I had promised Abi we would build a fort for the first time and have a camp out in it and make smores.
We built it as soon as we had changed into our jammies..

Abi loved it. We left it up part of the next day so that she could still play in there.

We made the smores with chocolate chips, marshmallows, and graham crackers in the microwave. They were really good but so sweet that we both only had a few bites.

This was a great night and Abi slept really well so we will definitely do it again in the future.

A little teaser...

Doug's parents arrived last Saturday late afternoon. They asked us where we wanted to go for dinner. I have been wanting to go to the Rainforest Cafe for a long time so we drove down to Gurnee. Abi got to ride the carousel while we waited to be seated so she was having a great time.
As we were walking back to the restaurant she saw a little snack place with an Icee sign and said she wanted one. I just told her we had to go eat dinner.
When the waiter took our order she said "I want an icee!" I said, "I don't think they have them here."
"Actually we do." So Abi got the souvenir kids cup with every flavor of Icee in it. It even had a toy gorilla that came with it!
She loved it there. This first picture is when she was watching the gorillas swinging around above us. The second is her with her Icee.

More to come later..

Busy busy busy

I'll be back on updating soon! Doug's parents were in town this weekend and we have spent the last few days painting, re-arranging, and doing some major spring cleaning so our house is in slight dissaray at the moment. I'll be back with pictures later!

Sharing

This morning while we were waiting for school to start, Abi noticed this little figurine I have of a little girl in a blue dress and asked me about it. I told her it was a gift from my Grandma when I was a little girl and that it has my birthstone on it.
She said, "It's from Grandma?"
"My grandma. My grandma is your grandma's mommy."
She then said, "And you have a grandpa."
I told her, "Nope. Both my grandpa's are in heaven. But you have two grandpas. You are so lucky."
She looked thoughtful a second and then said,
"You can have one of mine if you need one."

First Ultrasound

Woo hoo. Today was my first ultrasound. I think it is interesting how they do those here. In Utah I would have just had the one 'main' one when we found out the gender but because I had so much amniotic fluid and Abi had fluid on her kidney we ended up having a few. But here, I guess, you get to have a bunch of them.
I couldn't see much. The conversation pretty much went like this:
"Do you see the baby right here?"
"Uh, no."
"See right here."
"Kind of...."
But then I was able to finally make out the body and the heartbeat. That is the best! I love seeing the little heart fluttering away.

Roller Skating

Yesterday morning (monday) Abi earned back her roller skates and we set out really early for a little walk/roll around the block. I was really glad we did because it soon started raining and stayed that way for the rest of the day (and still is). Abi was so happy to put on her elbow and knee pads and skates.

she only fell once but told Grandma on the phone later " I fell so many times." I think she enjoyed falling.

It was so fun to watch her do this. I can't believe how fast she is growing up!

Easter morning

Easter was really fun.
The Easter Bunny always leaves a trail of eggs from the stairs to Abi's easter basket and it is so fun to watch her be so focused on the eggs that at the last minute she notices her basket.

seeing her basket for the first time..

Wait... these eggs have candy in them?

Do I really get to eat this?

She started on her candy right away and unfortunately Doug and I didn't stop her until we realized how much she had actually eaten. We would pay for this.

Nah. She was just super grumpy and mischievous. I even had to put her new roller skates up on the fridge and tell her she had lost them until the next day. Finally in the early afternoon we stuck her in her room for "quiet" time. She did not take a nap (as usual) but she did play by herself and allow us some quiet. I told Doug that under no circumstances was she allowed any more candy for the rest of the day. She stayed grumpy but was a little better but by Monday morning the detox was complete and she was a happy little sweetie pie all day.

Coloring Easter Eggs

I'm pretty behind on posting all of my Easter stuff... but here we are coloring Easter eggs Saturday evening. Abi had already started her candy mania since we had some out and was pretty hyper all day. By this point she was just grumpy.

But she was excited about the eggs.

Visiting the bunny

After school yesterday we went to Apple Holler to attend the Big Bunny Celebration. Alisse and her mom Andra (and baby brother) came as well. I hadn't realized how cold it was going to be so I added some tights, leg warmers,and socks under her springy dress. She also had that blazer jacket on but I added her winter coat over it which ended up in her looking kind of like a little snow monster.
At first they played some games.

Abi got the ring around the bunny after her third try!

hunted for some easter eggs with prizes inside...

they did the bunny bean bag toss

and then we went in for story time and to see the Bunny. The woman playing Granny McGregor is a friend from church so I hoped Abi would be a little more likely to go up to the bunny but no such luck..

Here is our bunny photo

Abi and Alisse enjoying the cookies they gave them in story time

doing a little bunny bowling

and freezing on the train/hay ride

They had pony rides as well. Abi went around once. This pony did not look very taken care of. It was sad. Last year when she rode one here it looked so much better.

The girls goofed off for a few minutes before we left..

It was really fun but very cold. I'm not sure if we'll continue to do this every year or not. It's a fun place but harder to enjoy in the cold weather.