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!"

Yes, we are alive!

Wow, it has been so long since I've been on. Sorry! (I know I've said that way too many times lately. Working on it!) :0) We survived our trip to Oregon over the holidays and had a wonderful time with family and friends. We weren't quite sure if we would make it to Oregon, or not, due to the weather. We had planned on driving there, but when we found out about all of the storms and road closures, we decided to fly. Thank goodness for Bri's air miles!!! ;0) It all worked out in the end, though, and I think I prefer flying with the kids for an hour than driving in the car for 10 at this age!! :0) Paige and Austin have always been great on airplanes and this was the case on both flights! Thank goodness! ;0)

The reason why we went to OR in the first place was because Brian's brother, Dan, was getting married to one of the sweetest girls out there, Rachael. It was an amazing sealing and I loved seeing how happy they were through out the ceremony. It reminded me of my sealing to Brian and the covenants we made with one another. The gospel of Jesus Christ is truly the most wonderful thing on this earth. It brings so much peace and joy to my life, knowing that I can be with my family forever!!

Well, we are now home and getting back into our schedule after 3+ weeks of being home. :0) I apologize for the picture overload, but hey, it's been either feast of famine lately, so bear with me!

Here are a few Christmas pics. The kids were so excited! It was hilarious have the kids go through their stockings and seeing them get so excited about the Little Einstein movies, candy and socks that were in there. If I get a chance, I'll post some videos of Paige and Austin looking through their stockings. Funny stuff!

Austin gave Paige a Polly Pocket set. She was SOOOO excited about it (see the next picture) and has been playing with it non-stop!! Best pressent ever, according to Paige! Great job, Austin!! ;0) Paige gave Austin a little remote control dinosaur that is so cute!! It's probably the slowest remote controlled anything that I've ever seen, but perfect for an almost 2-year-old boy!!

Paige asked Santa for this one! She also asked for a REAL dog, but that wasn't going to happen, so she got this instead. She didn't seem to mind....thank goodness! :0)

Austin is LOVING trucks and tractors right now. He was so excited to get these little construction trucks. He's even learning all the different names for the trucks from his Grandpa N. He especially loves his "caterpillar" or "pillar" as Austin says it! :0)

I made this little paper doll for Paige with my Cricut for a quiet church activity. I made Austin an alphabet matching game with animals for every letter. They turned out so well and the kids actually like playing with them! Always a plus, isn't it?!? ;0)

Lauralee is one of a kind and we love her so much!!! Doesn't her smile just make your day?!? ;0)

Brian and I went on a double date with John and Bethany (BIL and SIL) to the Blazers game on Christmas Day. It was fun going to the game, but it would have been better if they would have beat the Dallas Maveriks!! Oh well. At least the one their game against Boston two days later!! I'm pretty impressed by the shot I was able to get at the beginning of the game. It was fun watching Oden play again in person. Reminded us a little of our days in Columbus! :0)

Dance party '08!!! We turned on a little music and got out onto the dance floor! It was hilarious watching all of the kiddos dancing. Can you tell that the girls outnumbered the boys a little?!? :0)

We were able to take a few pics at the Portland temple after Dan and Rachael were sealed for time and all eternity. Of course it was raining, so we took the pics in the atrium. The kids were fascinated by the plants as you can see!

A pic of the happy couple. Sorry I wasn't able to get a better shot of you two, D & R!!

The one and only family picture taken with my camera. Love Bri's facial expression!! (He's blaming it on a cold!) :0)

Reception time! Paige seriously thought that Dan and Rachael were a prince and princess! She was in heaven!!

A little pic of my little handsome boy!!

More dancing. You just can't stop these girls!! ;0)

We spent 3 days at a beach house at Seaside!! It was so much fun! We did plenty of lounging....

playing on the beach which was VERY cold and windy the first day, but nice the 2nd day....

seeing lots of marine life at the aquarium....

playing on lots of rides and games at Fun Land....

and I think the best part, riding Fun bikes on the beach!!!

Paige LOVED these things. She could actually reach the pedals pretty well and got really good and going all over the place....that is until her and Brian got hit by a wave and she got soaked. She wasn't too happy about that and was pretty much done after that! She still says that riding bikes on the beach was the best part of our vacation, though!! ;0)

I saw Beth!!!!! I haven't been able to see Beth for years and after I called her to see if we could meet up I found out she only lives about 15 minutes from Bri's sister. How cool is that!!! It was so fun seeing her again. Seriously, she is such an amazing person! She's so talented, beautiful, funny and the sweetest person you could ever meet! (Have I embarassed you yet, Beth?!?) It was wonderful seeing her again! And her kids are soooo cute!! Thanks for the great visit, Beth!

When we got home from our little vacation, we were finally able to put together the gingerbread house I got for the kids. I sure you can tell what the favorite part was for the kids (notice I included Brian in the "kids"!!) :0)

Paige did such a good job decorating the house! She would eat maybe 1 piece of candy for every 10 she put on. Austin, on the other hand, ate 10 pieces of candy for every 1 he put on. Yeah, sugar-high-city!! ;0)

We had a wonderful Christmas vacation. Paige absolutely LOVED spending time with her cousins, Natalie, Lauralee and Sydney. We hardly ever saw her during the day because she was constantly playing with them, whether it was dressup, puppies, house, etc. It was so fun seeing her get along with her cousins so well! Austin learned a little about defending himself around his cousin, Ava. Ava has to be THE funniest little girl. She has the most personality I have ever seen in a toddler, EVER! :0) And Austin was quite afraid of her!! They pretty much had a hate-hate relationship according to Austin. Oh well. Hopefully they'll learn to play well together the older they get! :0)