I'm not improving!!

I keep telling myself that I need to go downstairs and update my blog, but I either think about it when I'm doing something else that is needing to be done or else I'm just too tired to go down, sit at the computer and try to think of something clever to say in my post! So I have to apologize! My SIL said that her kids were needing a Paige and Austin fix, so here you go, Em!! :0)

Here are a few things we've been up to! We went to Yellowstone with Brian's parents, even though Brian couldn't go. It was so fun!! The weather was perfect and the kids had a blast. Paige and Austin still talk about the geysers, especially Plume geyser because it surprised our pants off when it went off suddenly when we were walking past it, the bears and the buffalo! Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa!!!

Paige and Austin LOVED throwing snowballs at us. I love this picture of Austin throwing one at Grandma. He thought it was the funniest thing!!

Here's our little group at the Upper Falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.


Paige couldn't get enough of the snow. She was already in it before we even thought of putting her snowpants on. (We seriously didn't think she'd climb through it and play in it like she did.) She didn't mind the cold wetness until she was done playing and then she lost it (maybe that is because she was a little tired!) ;0) We had to strip her down and cover her in a blanket in the car. We didn't have a change of clothes with us, so we put one of Austin's pull-ups on her and then her snowpants until her clothes were somewhat dry. She thought it was so funny that she had to wear a pull-up!

Austin and I at Artist Point in the Grand Canyon. We took about 5 pictures because Austin refused to look at the camera. Luckily we got this pic. He sure is my handsome boy!! That smile melts me every time!!

We went to the grizzly and wolf discovery center in West Yellowstone a couple of times. Paige learned all about the difference between grizzly and black bears. I'm always amazed at how well she remembers things and can think things through so well. I love that she enjoys to learn about new things and makes everything fun! Paige and Austin got a kick out of this wolf. It was as fascinated by Paige and Austin and they were of him! Paige's favorite part of the wolf section was the National Geographic video that they had showing. We could hardly pull her away from it!

Had to put this pic in to show you my belly...kind of. :0) I'm officially in my 3rd trimester now. Crazy!!!

Here's a few Easter pics. I realized afterwards that we didn't take pics Easter Sunday with Paige and Austin all dressed up. Oh well! Just know that they looked cute! :0) Paige and Austin were very excited for Easter this year. Besides loving the Easter bunny, they really loved hearing about Jesus and the Resurrection. It makes me so happy seeing their little testimonies growing every day. They have such innocent, simple faith. I really need to try to be more like them in this aspect!!

We had us three pregos together part of the Easter weekend. It's so fun having a sister and SIL pregnant the same time as me and especially due so close together. Kandra is due Aug. 2nd. I'm due Aug. 7th. Bekah is due Sept. 2nd. Crazy, huh?!? :0)

Pics from our Easter egg hunt!

During General Conference weekend, Brian had his mission reunion. It was fun being there with him and meeting some of his companions and his mission president and wife. It was especially fun to see some of his companions that I knew back at Ricks and BYU. Yes, I actually worked with one of his comps at Ricks and when I met Brian I found out that he was Bri's trainer. Such a small world!!

For family home evening one night, we decided to enjoy some nice Spring weather and go out to the Snake River. The kids were in heaven! They threw rocks into the river THE entire time. They definitely take after their daddy with their love of throwing rocks! :0)

Paige had to climb up on this really big boulder. She is definitely our little Monkey!!! She said that she was the highest of all and when she was so high she could see "all of the land". It was so cute. I have a video of her talking about it, but for some reason I can't get videos to load on blogger. Very frustrating, but oh well!

My sweet little boy!!

Trying to catch up

I really hate it when I get so behind that it's overwhelming thinking about posting anything! Life has been good, but very busy, thus the lack of posts! So, here are the main events that I'm needing to post about...our Big Sky trip, Brian's, Austin's and Paige's birthdays, the results of our ultrasound...is that it? Probably not, but at least it's a starting point! :0)

Brian's birthday was on the 24th of Feb. and he is now 31!! I was actually going to write a lovey, dovey tribute to Brian for his birthday on here, but as you can see, that didn't happen. I'm sure he's happy that I didn't embarrass him on the WorldWide Web!! :0) The kids loved giving him his presents and singing Happy Birthday to him. We didn't give him a big party because we decided to celebrate his b-day with our Big Sky trip. We were able to meet up with 5 other Optometry couples from Ohio State and it was like we just left Ohio recently instead of almost 2 years ago. We just picked up right where we left off. It was so fun meeting Daryn (John's wonderful wife) for the first time!! She fits right in with the group!! :0) The only thing that would have made this trip even better was if I was able to go snowboarding with everyone else!! It was very nice, though, just being able to relax without any kids and no set schedule! Thanks to Brian's parents for watching the kids for us!!

Here's 4 of the 6 couples. The Hardy's and Brian went skiing/snowboarding, while the Passeys, Heningers and I went out to lunch!

Here are the Girls!! Tricia, me, Holly, Krissy, Erin and Daryn. It was so fun seeing these girls again and meeting Daryn! I'm just happy that we all live in the West and we can get together at least once a year at more CE conferences!! Hopefully we'll have more of our Opt girls with us the next time!!

Austin had his birthday on the 8th and Paige had hers on the 19th. I can't believe that Austin is 2 and Paige is 4 now. They're so big! Paige is very imaginative and loves to play games and pretend with Austin. And he's following right in Paige's footsteps. We just love Austin's facial expressions and little sayings. For instance, we went for a little drive this morning to see one of the local campgrounds and the road was a little bumpy to say the least. Austin and Paige had big smiles the whole time and Austin kept saying that the car was so big and bouncy. If anything is a little scary to Austin, he says that it's too big. Crazy boy!! :0) Paige is fascinated by our little baby. She keeps asking how the baby is growing and when and how it will come out. She takes out one of our pregnancy books and turns to the pages that show pictures of the baby and the umbilical cord and informs us how the umbilical cord feeds the baby from the mommy. She never ceases to amaze and entertain us! ;0) Anyway, we decided to celebrate their birthdays together this year. We were hoping to do it on the 14th, but we had to move it to the 21st. It was better that way anyway, because the weather was great and we had G'ma and G'pa N., Aunt Bekah, Uncle Lance, Aunt Kandra, Uncle Brandon, Sydnee and the dogs, Yogi and Ace there to help us celebrate! I have to include the dogs because they are one of Paige and Austin's favorite part of our family's visits! :0) Austin's favorite presents were his Cars umbrella and his Superman/Batman cape. Paige's favorite presents were her Belle dress and her Princess umbrella. She also got a Supergirl/Princess cape that she wears, but the Belle dress takes the cake. If you know Paige, you shouldn't be surprised at all by that!! :0) Speaking of cake, the kids wanted a Dalmation cake this year and I tried my best to make it look at least a little like a dog! Definitely NOT one of my talents, but it's fun to try! :0)

Here are the 3 Pregos (Paige couldn't resist being in the pic!) on the N side of the family! Kandra is due Aug. 2nd, I'm due Aug. 14th (they moved my due date back a week, Ugh!!), and Bekah's due Sept. 2nd. We're gonna keep my mom busy!! :0)

These are the butterfuly cupcakes we made for Paige's birthday snack at preschool. They were a hit!

Another big event for our family this month is that we bought a new vehicle! With the new addition in our family, we needed a bigger car that would actually have enough room for our soon-to-be family of 5. Brian's parents were selling their wonderful and beautiful Tahoe and it was just too good to pass up!! Can I tell you...WE LOVE IT!! :0) The kids do too, but Austin, especially, is having a hard time realizing that it's our car and not Gramma and Popop's car anymore!! ;0) (Pictures will be coming when I think to take a picture of the Tahoe!) :0)

OK, the last major thing that has happened this month is finding out the sex of our baby! There were many family members and friends that said boy, but a few that said girl. My side of the family suspected we would have a girl because of our "every other" tradition. (So far all 12 of the grandkids have been girl, boy, girl, boy, etc. CRAZY!!) Well, the tradition holds out!! We are having a girl. We are very excited and are anxious to see if this girl will be dramatic like Paige and a little more laid-back like Austin. From the ultrasound, I think she has a little bit of an attitude and will be like her big sis, but we'll wait and see! :0) She definitely didn't want us to know what she was since she kept wiggling and crossing her legs. The tech kept saying that Baby Girl was making her work for her money! :0) Does that sound like Paige to you?!? :0) At least Baby Girl gave in a little and finally let us have a peek. (Very much UNLIKE Paige, if you remember!) ;0)

Is that a good enough review of the past month? Hopefully I'll be able to fill in these big events with some "every day" events soon.

My latest project

Even though I have many pics and updates that I need to blog about, I only have a few minutes before dinner, so I'll post about my latest project. I've been making these cute and very handy nursing covers, or "Hooter hiders" and some people call them. They are super easy to make and such a great idea, if you ask me!! ;0)

Two in one day?!?

When I'm on a roll, I'm on a roll, I guess! Two of my SILs sent me some more pictures from our trip to OR and Dan and Rachael's wedding. Thought I'd add them to the blog. Also, the family picture that the photographer took was much better of Brian, don't you think? I think he looks mighty hot!! ;0)

Sorry these are so small. Can't figure out how to make them bigger.

Austin LOVED the beach!! He especially loved chasing the birds. He's pointing to more birds in this picture, in fact.

Barbie movies are THE BEST, at least according to Paige and her cousins, Natalie and Lauralee! Austin had to even get into them for a while! (I think it was mainly because they wouldn't watch anything else, except maybe a Little Einsteins movie every once in a while!) ;0)

Austin thought this cupboard in Julie and Clay's kitchen was the best!! He played hide and seek in it for quite a while!

We've been so lucky having kids who travel on airplanes well. It sure is the way to go in my opinion!! :0)

Oh, and for those that haven't heard about my new calling yet. I was just called a couple weeks ago to be the Stake Primary secretary. I'm pretty excited about it because I'm working with a great group of women, but it's been interesting so far during Ward conferences and having to visit each ward. It wouldn't be too bad, except since Brian's in the Bishopric he can't stay with the kids during Sacrament meeting while I'm gone, so we have a wonderful family in our ward who has them during Sacrament meeting and then takes them to their house until Brian and I are done. Crazy!! Thankfully Ward Conferences aren't every Sunday in the year, that's all I have to say!!

An update already?!? Something must be wrong!

I know, I know. I can hardly believe it myself! Another post in less than week (barely, but still!) ;0) I just wanted to show ya'll a few projects I've completed this week. One even being an organizational project! Yeah, for me!! :0)

A Valentine's Day bow

My new bow-making supplies container. I can actually fit everything in here and even have room for more ribbon. (Don't tell Brian that!!) :0) BTW, can you tell I even divided all of my ribbon scraps by color? Yeah, I was on one that day!! :0)

I saw this bow on the hair blog, Rockin' Shorty Hairstyles , and had to try it. This is actually one of THE easiest bows I've made and took hardly any time to do. My sister, Kandra, also made a really cute one!! I was going to make a "snowman" also, but I couldn't find the other spool of white ribbon that I bought last week, so it's just the "snowgirl" for now. Paige wore it to preschool today and everyone loved it. She made sure that everyone knew it was a snowgirl and not a snowman, though! :0)

For a long time, I just had a ribbon hanging from the wall that held all of Paige's bows, but it was filled to the max, so I decided to make this bow-hanger instead. I think it turned out so cute! Paige loves it and says that it's the "best one in the whole world!"