New Baby Announcement

A few months ago we went out to dinner and I had gone to the restaurant beforehand to give them a special fortune cookie for Josh. We ate and I got up to make sure they were going to give it to him and when I got back they were already setting it on the table. Glad I didn't miss it! He opened it up, and read this fortune:

He just kind of stared at it and then said "wait a minute"... So I asked him "did you get a good fortune babe?!" and then he smiled and laughed and said "ha! I really thought that was my fortune and thought that it couldnt be true because May seemed too far away." But after I asked him about it he quickly realized it really WAS his fortune, and got all excited and gave me a hug and kiss. It was funny, we had a good laugh about his confusion. 

Fast forward about 2 months later (today) and we are sitting at the dinner table finishing up and I leaned back against my chair with a full belly. This is the conversation between me and Lyla that happened right after that: 

Mom, your belly looks big. 

You're right, it does. You know why? 

Stares at me. 

Because there is a baby in there! We are going to have another baby. 

We are!? 

Yep. 

So are we going to still keep Mac? 

BWHAHAHAH

Yes, we are still keeping Mac. 

She smiles, yeah, you're right, he's not a baby anymore. 

She must have been thinking we can only have one baby at a time but since Mac wasn't a baby anymore it was ok if we got another one. haha

She continued to lift up my shirt and check it out and think about the possibility of there being a baby inside. Then says: So if you stand up will the baby just come out? 

No...it wont come out for a long time. It has to get a little bigger. 

Hm, ok. 

That was about the end of the conversation. It was really cute and sweet and I'm excited to talk about it with her more as we find out if its a boy/girl and about being a big sister again. She seemed genuinely excited and loves babies so I think this is going to be fun for her.  

Yay for #3 coming in May :) 

Zoo

 Aunt Penny invited us to the zoo this past Thursday since the boys were out of school for fall break. It was perfect weather and all the animals were either eating or moving around. It was great. 

Mac checking out the monkey swinging around. Jace and Justin took care of the kids the entire time. They loved it, and I loved it even more! 

Eagle's nest!

One of the best parts of the day was the polar bear swimming around right up next to the glass over and over. He came up right next to the kids faces and it was really fun watching him play. 

By the end of the trip Mac was getting pooped out and laid down on Justin's shoulder. What a sweet little boy. He really doesn't know Justin that well even but had no problem with him carting him around and holding him. 

Lyla's Dance Recital

Last night was Lyla's second dance recital. (New teacher this time). My Mom came, Dad was in Scotland, but Cindy also came. See below video for the real deal. 

 This last picture is by far my favorite. It is hard to get Lyla's real smile instead of the "cheese" smile and I think this picture captures her more natural smile. She felt like a princess and you could see it on her face. 

Pumpkin Patch w/ Preschool

Once a month Lyla's preschool goes on a field trip. This month it was to the pumpkin patch. I like going to see her with her class and McKay always enjoys being with the kids and doing whatever fun activity they have planned. 

When we got there we hung out on the tractors. They had about 10 different ones to climb up on and play on. All the kids loved it. 

Then we went through a corn maze, and after got on the back of a hay ride to hear a story from Mrs. Laurie. She is such a great teacher and so sweet with the kids. 

 Lyla is the second one in from the teacher. She loves to hear books which is great since just a year ago she wouldn't sit to hear even half of a book and now requests daily for a mountain of books to be read to her and she will also 'read' them to herself. 

Picking out some pumpkins. Mac got tired of walking so we scooped him up into the wheelbarrow.

Lyla still loves it when she gets to go to school and is always excited to tell me about what they did. It is so fun to watch her grow and learn. 

Continued Birthday Celebration

I wanted to do something special for Josh's birthday besides just the dinner with out little family. So I surprised him with night away from the kids. We dropped them off at grandma and grandpa's and went to Midway at the Zermott hotel. It has a swiss theme to it and was really fun. We went to the restaurant first and had a fancy and delicious dinner that Josh loved. 

After dinner we hit the pool and hot tub. Didn't get a picture of it but here is us in our cool robes just about to head to the pool. The pool has a really cool feel to it and the hot tub has a big rock formation with  waterfall that comes down into it. 

The next morning we went to the bakery right by the hotel and got delicious baked goodies. And found a few little trinkets to bring home to the kids. 

Before we left we walked around the scarecrow tour they have set up outside the hotel. Some of them were super funny like this Despicable Me character who is also a golfer.

Plumber butt! I tried to get Josh to really bend over to show his off but he wouldn't. Ha. He at least was a good sport and bent half way over next to the scarecrow. 

I found some weird gypsy creepy one and wanted to be her twin sister. 

We headed back to pick up the kids after the scarecrow walk. It was still early in the day but Mike was in town and we had made plans to have him play with the kids that day. It was nice though to just get away and have some time to talk and relax without the kids. We are feeling SO lucky to have my parents live here now so we can get away more than we normally would have otherwise. And our kids absolutely love going over there so we never have to worry about them when we're gone. Ahh...just thinking about it makes me want to do it again soon! 

Josh turns 32

 Josh worked on his birthday, but when he got home we went out to eat at P.F. Chang's with a gift card he got from his parents. Then we came home and opened up his birthday gift, which was a new BBQ. We had our last one that we found a street corner in Spokane for several years and was awesome but was starting to deteriorate inside and was falling apart. The kids loved helping him open it and we kept the box to play in for awhile. 

After present opening we had cake, german chocolate, Josh's favorite. Look how bright it is with all 32 candles! Whew 

This is Josh's manly face with his new BBQ, haha. 

Happy Birthday sweetheart! 

Singing the ABC's

I know she has known her ABC's for awhile now, but if she knows you want her to perform she rarely does. But I think a little extra practice at preschool also encouraged her. It gets a little jumbled in the middle there, but still cute nonetheless. 

St. George Girls Trip

This past weekend we got to go on a girls trip with aunts, mom, cousins etc. We went down to St. George and saw Mary Poppins at the Tuacahn outdoor theater. We met Friday afternoon at Kneader's for lunch down by my Mom's house and ate together before heading down. 

Here we are, minus my Mom who is hiding next to Cindy

That night we ate dinner at Texas Roadhouse and then went to the show that started that evening at dusk. It was perfect weather outside and we had a light jackets on and felt great. It was an awesome outdoor theater that backed right up to a huge wall of rocks. 

This isn't the set for Mary Poppins, its for the other show they are doing there (which some of our group went to on Saturday). But I wanted to remember the cool backdrop that they had and what beautiful scenery it was even though we were in the middle of a desert! 

 On Saturday we spent the morning lounging by the pool, then lunch at Chili's and shopping at Tai Pan and the outlet mall. We went to dinner at a local Italian restaurant together and then split ways. Half the group went to a second show and me, my Mom, Cindy and Lindsey went to the movies. We left Sunday morning. It was a relaxing and fun trip. Hope we get to do another one again some day. 

1st Day of Preschool

Preschool started today. Lyla was SUPER excited. She doesn't even quite know what school is, but she somehow knew it would be awesome. 

We actually stayed the first day so the teacher could tell us about the year and other info we needed to know. So the kids came and just played while the parents listened to the teacher. Lyla sat at this little kitchen/drive-up window the entire 45 minutes. I kept looking over and there she was just playing away and would talk to anyone who came up but still stay there if no one was coming to the window. She talked about it the rest of the day. It had a little button you could push that made those windows (on the right) open and she loved it. 

She told me as I went to get her "Mom, you are supposed to leave, I go to school by myself". She was right. I told her that she would be at school alone but forgot to mention to her that I would be staying this first day. She was so ready to just dive in. 

Thursday came, the official "1st day" and she woke up with an excited voice and says "I get to go to school today ALL.BY.MYSELF!!!" It was so adorable how excited she was. Preschool is right up her alley and she is going to thrive so well there. Here is her 1st day picture, Minnie Mouse backpack and all. 

She jumped out of the car, gave me a semi-nervous but super excited hug and good-bye and ran up the driveway by herself, waving goodbye. I got a little teary, mostly in excitement for her because she was so excited, and because of course she is growing up and isn't my little toddler anymore. She is now my independent, strong, happy little preschooler.