The Merrell Family Blog

Christmas Dance Recital

2011-12-20T00:31:00.003-07:00

My two cute little girls had their Christmas Dance Recital this weekend. (man its been a busy week!) They performed in The Nutcracker and their dance was the happy elves. The girls were so excited that Justin was able to come to their performance. They asked him every day this last week if he was going to come, so I am so glad that it worked out and he was able to be there.They were soooo cute! The girls did great. Zaralyn is always paying attention and is very good about doing her dance steps just right. Brylee loves to twirl-it is really cute. :) And Brylee may or may not have been also making shadow puppets with her hand's shadow on the backdrop, lol.

Here is little brother Silas. Hanging out with Dad and Mom watching the girls perform. I have a feeling he is going to be doing this a lot in his life :)

The flowers we got the girls for the show

What cute little happy elves I have :)

Great performance girls! Mom and Dad are so proud of you! We love you!

Zaralyn's Preschool Christmas Program

2011-12-20T00:03:00.003-07:00

Last Wednesday (12/14/11) was Zaralyn's preschool Christmas program. Mrs. Condefier does an amazing job with the preschool kids. She made all of the students little elf capes to wear and take home after the show. They sang eight Christmas songs and had actions to most of them. Zaralyn was really cute and did a great job singing! Brylee so badly wants to be in Preschool! She thinks the world of her big sister.
Brylee, Zaralyn, and Lizzy

Mrs. Condefier

Here is one little song from their program. Enjoy!

snow play

2011-12-19T23:20:00.003-07:00

Last week, we got a little bit of snow that stuck around for a few days. The girls were so excited to go outside and play! I stayed inside with Silas and we watched the girls from the window. It felt like we were watching a movie, they were having so much fun. I finally had to bribe them with some warm hot chocolate to get them to come inside, if I hadn't I think they might have stayed out there all night.

turkey day

2011-12-19T23:09:00.003-07:00

This year for Thanksgiving, Justin had to work and couldn't come home at all. I was pretty bummed, but still wanted to make the best of it, so the girls and I made our own Thanksgiving dinner. I really didn't have a choice though, they talked so much about it at preschool, that there is no way Zaralyn was going to let me get out of cooking anything less than a Thanksgiving feast! It was still fun to cook and hang out with my kids. I didn't take any pictures of our meal, but our turkey looked fabulous! And Justin loved the leftovers :) The next day the girls and I made turkey cookies by cutting out the shape of their hands. They loved it. Happy Thanksgiving!

all those curls...

2011-12-19T23:04:00.002-07:00

Our little man has so many curls! Luckily if you brush it, his hair goes straight for most of the day. It is so funny to see him with all this curly hair at bath time though. Kinda looks like he has a little old man perm, lol :)

Ashley's visit

2011-12-19T22:52:00.002-07:00

Right after Silas was born one of my bestest friends flew all the way out here to PA to visit me! I couldn't believe that she was really spending her time and money on a trip just to see me. It was so flattering! Ashley and I met in 11th grade, and she is just one of those friends that I know doesn't ever judge me, she just loves and accepts me for me. (We have been through it all together!) She is the best! I was still recovering from having Silas, so I probably wasn't the best hostess, but I loved having her here! We pretty much sat on my couch and talked for 3 days straight. It was so fun! Thanks for coming to visit me Ashley, it means the world to me. Love you!

7 days new...

2011-11-18T19:08:00.006-07:00

These are a few of the pictures from Silas' newborn photo shoot when he was 7 days new. Now I just have the problem of deciding which picture is my favorite, they are all so good. I love how they turned out. Crystal from Crystal Santriano Photography was amazing working with Silas. Thank you so much! These photos just make me happy. :) We sure do love our cute little man!

the birth of our baby boy

2011-11-16T21:38:00.005-07:00

I have really been wanting to write down the story of Silas' birth before I forget all of the details. If you are not interested in reading this, or it grosses you out, just click to another page. Anyways, here it goes...

The last three weeks of my pregnancy the doctors were getting worried because I was getting too much amniotic fluid and my baby boy was getting too big, and also he was lying transverse. I was sent to a specialist to see what could be causing the rise in amniotic fluid, but at that appointment, my fluid levels were actually down (still high, but not "as high"), but at 37 weeks, he was already measuring 8lbs 5oz. Pretty crazy since I still had three weeks to go. After that ultrasound, the specialist took me in her office and proceeded to tell me all of the things that could potentially go wrong if I tried to deliver this baby naturally. She told me that most likely the baby wouldn't fit, he could get stuck, have shoulder distocia, the cord could become pinched off and it could result in brain damage, you name it, if it could potentially go wrong while delivering, we discussed it. This was not the easiest thing to listen to while pregnant and so close to delivering. I had a really hard time with this news, and both my doctor and the specialist were recommending that I "opt for an elective c-section". This was really not what I had wanted and I tried to wrap my head around the idea of a c-section, but I just couldn't accept that this is what was best for me and the baby.

At my next appointment, the baby was finally head down (wahoo!) and again he weighed 8 lbs 5oz at the ultrasound. So this doctors appointment made me feel a lot better when my doctor told me that he didn't think we would need a c-section after all and if I wanted to deliver naturally, that was fine with him. That was such a relief! At that appointment, I had lost my mucus plug and was 1 cm and 50% effaced. The doc said that he didn't think I would make it much longer and sent me on my way. I continued to have bloody show through out the evening, and I was pretty convinced that I was going to go into labor at any second.

Well... at my next week appointment (Friday 10/21/11)...still very pregnant... my little man again weighed 8lbs 5oz on the ultrasound and amniotic fluid was the highest it had ever been. It was at 30, but I am not sure of the units that is measured in. Doc checked me and I was 3cm and pretty much effaced. He stripped my membranes and we talked about being induced the following Monday so that my little guy didn't get too big in there and start causing the previously mentioned problems. I went home feeling relieved that I had a date that he would be here. I called Justin and told him about my appointment since he was working about an hour and a half away. We discussed how I was feeling and he decided he had better come home that night, even though he technically wasn't supposed to leave work. He got home around 8pm, we had dinner, put the kids to bed, and took a shower. He layed down and was out. Poor guy was so tired from working.

I climbed into bed shortly after him around 10:30pm and as soon as I did, I got a contraction. I had been having contractions for the last two weeks, so this wasn't unusual, but then four minutes later I got another one, and four minutes later I had yet another one. I couldn't believe that they were so close together. The contractions stayed every four minutes, and I started writing down the time of each one to see how far apart they really were. They stayed consistently no more than four minutes apart and sometimes they were only three or two minutes apart. I layed in bed watching tv wondering if this was really "it". I started getting excited, so of coarse I couldn't sleep but I didn't want to let myself get too excited because I was just sure that at any second they were going to stop all together and it would be just another round of false labor that I had been having for the last two weeks. Well they didn't stop, so around midnight, I decided, well if this is going to be it, I am not going to the hospital with wet hair. The contractions were there and mildly uncomfortable, but I was pretty much in no pain at all. So I got up, blow dried my hair and straightened it. I started texting my friend Sarah letting her know that this "might be it" so go to sleep, but don't sleep too heavy. :) Of coarse then she was too excited to sleep and was ready to come over at any second (she was going to watch the girls for us). I told her I felt silly because the contractions didn't hurt yet, and I wasn't about to head to the hospital and have them send me home. I told her I would keep her posted. I finished doing my hair and put on my make up. I think it was around 2am at this point. I didn't know what else to do. I couldn't sleep, so I just went and laid back in bed and watched a few episodes of American Restorations and timed contractions. Random show to watch, I know, but I sorta like it, and lets face it, what is really on at 2am?

I kept texting with Sarah and she kept saying, "I think you had better go to the hospital."I texted her back, "how close do contractions have to be before you 'should' go to the hospital?" She didn't know, so we decided that I should google it, so I did, lol. I think google said that you should go to the hospital when contractions are four to five minutes apart and the contractions hurt bad enough that you have a hard time talking through them. Well that was contradicting because my contractions were anywhere from 2-4 minutes apart, but I was still in no pain, slight discomfort, but seriously no pain. I decided that I had better wake Justin up and get his opinion. I woke him up and told him what was going on, and he said I should call the doctor and ask. So I called the doctor, and he called me right back. I told him my situation and asked him when I should come in. He replied, "You were at a 3 at your appointment earlier, your contractions are 4 minutes or less apart, and this is your 3rd baby, You come NOW, right now!" I didn't expect him to say that for some reason so it caught me off guard. I tried to explain "but, I am not in any pain, the contractions don't hurt yet." He gently reminded me that I did not want to be delivering my baby in route to the hospital. So, "Please come now." I told him we would get our things ready and be in. I texted Sarah and told her she could come over now :) It was super exciting! Justin and I got dressed, made our bed, and gathered up the last of the things for our hospital bag. Sarah was over to our house in just a few minutes and wished us luck as we kissed our little girls and headed out the door to the hospital.

We were driving to the hospital at 4am. Justin mentioned he was going to grab a drink from the house and forgot, so I told him just to stop at the gas station. We were chuckling to ourselves that this is what my parents must have been like. My mom has told me a million times about her birth story of my little brother where she almost didn't make it to the hospital because she had to stop and buy him a baby book on the way. I had a contraction just as we pulled into the gas station, so I waited through that one and then got out of the car to to walk in, and just as I waked into the gas station, another contraction hit. It kinda made me nervous, but it still felt silly to be in labor and stopping at the gas station. Oh well. We got him a drink and we were on our way to the hospital again.

When we got to the hospital, they put us in triage so that they could hook me up to the monitors and make sure I was really in labor. I got all hooked up and my contractions were two minutes or less apart, but I was still in no pain. The nurse said that the doctor was delivering a baby, but she would come back in a few minutes and check me to see where we were at. She left and didn't come back for over an hour. When she did come back, she had the doctor with her, and he checked me. He said I was at a 6! I couldn't believe it, mostly because we were still laughing and joking and when I had ever gotten to a six with the girls, we were having a baby very soon after that. They took us over to a regular room and we got settled in.

Around 6:30am the nurse said that she could have the doctor break my water if we wanted to, and I figured it would only speed things along, so we wanted him to do it. He came in and broke my water and just a few minutes later, I noticed that my contractions weren't as close any more, but they were starting to hurt more when they did come. I labored like that for about 2 hours. The doctor came back in and said that my contractions were starting to stall, do we want to start pitocin? I said yes, so the nurse started it, and I am pretty sure as soon as she did, my body remembered what it was supposed to be doing, because the contractions started back with a vengeance. They were right on top of each other and painful. Each contraction got worse and worse. After about another hour of that, they were getting pretty bad, so I asked the nurse what I could have for pain, other than an epidural, and she said that she could give me something in my IV. Then she was checking the monitors and doing a few things in the room, and she walked over and said, "so what do you want me to do?" and I was kinda annoyed and answered, "Go get me something for pain!" She said she would and left.

Right then, I had a really hard contraction and I felt the baby move down through my pelvis. I said to Justin "the baby is coming down". I was in tears and a lot of pain at this point. He stood up and said, "let me get the nurse", but I was holding his hand, and wouldn't let it go, I said "No! Don't leave me!" But he wasn't trying to leave, he was just trying to get to the call button, so I let go of his hand, and I remember thinking, "where is that dang nurse, and why isn't she bringing me anything for pain!?!" Just as Justin pushed the call button, the nurse came through the door. She could tell I was really in pain, and she said, lets just check you. She said I was at a 9, and I replied, "No I am not, I have to push!" And she could feel the baby moving down. She yelled for the doctor, and he was right through the door gowning up and getting ready. It is kind of a blur for me at this point, but after a few contractions of very hard painful pushing, he was here! His birth seemed to pull so much more out of me than the girls births had. I just remember being in so much pain, and hurting so bad, but it was all worth it because at 9:54am our sweet baby boy was here! All 9lbs 2oz of him delivered without so much as a Tylenol :) Makes me wish I had another appointment with that specialist just to say, "See! I knew I could do it!," lol

The nurse told me while she was helping me clean up, that when she had gone out to ask the doctor for some pain meds, that he told her, "just stall for 10 minutes. If she gives birth like she said she does, she is getting close and won't need it." I was thinking how rude that was, can't a girl get a little pain med? lol But honestly I am pretty sure that the meds wouldn't have even worked at that point. The docter that delivered him, Dr. DeCesar, was great! I am glad that he was the doctor there that day, but it is sorta funny that he was the doctor on call because he is one of my friend's husband. I am sad that my doctor, Dr. Rabin wasn't there that day though. Anyways...

Welcome to the world sweet baby Silas. We sure do love you!

His very first picture :)

I couldn't believe he was really over 9lbs! So much for the ultrasound not only 24 hours earlier that said 8lbs 5oz...

We are so in love with our little man. He is just perfect!

Silas' Blessing Day

2011-11-11T23:13:00.003-07:00

On Sunday November 6, 2011 Our baby boy, Silas Richard Merrell was blessed by his father. My parents wanted to be able to be here for the blessing, so we got permission from the Bishop to bless Silas in our home Sunday evening when Justin could make it home from work. Silas' blessing was so special and perfect, and I am so grateful for Justin being a worthy priesthood holder to have the honor of blessing our little boy.

Justin and Silas. I just love those two boys!

We asked a few friends in our ward (and their families) and our bishop as well as my dad to stand in the circle to bless Silas. Thank you so much to those of you who came to support us.

L to R: Daniel Major, Joe Olivetti, Richard Millett, Justin Merrell, Silas, Luis Samudio, and Bishop Lord

Grandpa Millett, Silas, and Grandma Millett

Justin and I with our sweet boy.

Our family

It was a beautiful blessing day, and it worked out perfectly. Our friends were able to stay and have dessert with us. It honestly was so nice. We were able to visit and hang out with our friends. We are so grateful to have such great friends here. We just love our little man. Welcome to the world Silas. We love you!

grandma and grandpa's visit

2011-11-11T22:59:00.003-07:00

Grandma and Grandpa Millett came to meet their newest little grandson this last week. It was so nice to have them here and have some extra hands to help out this week. Thank you so much for coming Mom and Dad! We sure had a good time with you. The girls were so sad when we dropped them off at the airport. As we were driving away, Zaralyn said, "I am really gonna miss grandpa and grandma." then a few seconds later she said "and we didn't even take one picture with them!!" And you know what, she was right. I didn't take any pictures of the girls with them. Oops, lol. I guess you need to come back Mom and Dad :) Thanks again for coming, we really appreciate you!

Silas' first bath

2011-11-11T22:50:00.002-07:00

Silas' umbilical cord fell off at 10 days old, so he was able to get his first real bath. Grandma and I gave him his bath and he pretty much cried the whole time. He was really hungry at the time though, so that didn't help. He has come around to baths a little bit more, but the only part that he really likes is when I wash his hair. He is one handsome little man!

new chandelier

2011-11-11T22:44:00.002-07:00

We finally found and installed a chandelier for our dining room. It is so weird that there was no light at all over the dining room table. We searched for the last year to find a light that we both liked, and we could never find one, then I found this beauty in the Pottery Barn catalogue and it was about half the price as the ones in the lighting books I had marked. Lets just say SOLD! and I just love her :)

Happy Halloween

2011-11-11T22:26:00.003-07:00

Just a few Halloween snapshots to catch this blog up... My parents flew in Saturday night and we were so excited to have them here for us for the week. We hadn't carved our pumpkins yet, so Monday afternoon Grandpa and Grandma and Justin and the girls carved the pumpkins.

They turned out pretty good! Way to go guys!

After the pumpkins, we got the girls dressed up in their costumes to go trick or treating. Here is our cute little Dorthy and Glenda the Good Witch. Grandpa and Daddy took the girls out and they had a lot of fun.

Grandma and I stayed home and handed out candy with Silas. I didn't get a costume for Silas, just some Halloween pj's although I had the thought that it would have been really cute to have dressed him up as a munchkin. :) Oh well. I am just glad that Silas is here and that he loves his Mummy :) Happy Halloween!

meet our new little man...

2011-10-25T20:58:00.006-06:00

Silas Richard Merrell He was born on Saturday October 22, 2011 at 9:54am

He weighed 9 pounds 2 ounces

and he is 20 1/2 inches long
He is just perfect! I am so in love with him!

Justin is one proud daddy. He is so excited to have a little boy.

The girls came to meet their new little brother, and they just love him.

They love to hold and kiss him.

They are going to be great big sisters.

Heading home with our 3 babies. Love them all!

Silas is such a sweet little man.

We are so happy and blessed to add him to our family.

39 weeks

2011-10-20T21:55:00.001-06:00

Today I am 39 weeks pregnant! That is more pregnant than I have ever been since I was induced with the girls around 38 weeks. I had another ultrasound and doctor appointment today and things are looking great! Doc said baby is good to come any time, and he might do just that very soon. So here are a few pics of the little guy before he is here. Hopefully my next pictures are in color (Thats what Zaralyn says-she wants to see him in color, lol)

jack-o-lantern

2011-10-15T16:23:00.002-06:00

Zaralyn has been learning new songs at preschool and has loved singing us the songs that she has learned. This is Jack-o-lantern. I think she's pretty cute :)

Zaralyn's Spa Party

2011-10-06T21:19:00.009-06:00

I wanted to throw Zaralyn a birthday party, but knowing that I would be 36 weeks pregnant, I figured I had better make it as easy as possible on myself. The salon that I get my hair done at had these cute birthday party packages and I loved the idea. So did Zaralyn!

For Food we made Fruit Kabobs and Fruit dip, a veggie tray with dip, crackers, apples, and bite size sandwiches (they were hearts, stars and flowers- so cute! Thanks for your help with the bread Jutta!) Then I set out a few bowls of candy. I wasn't going for a full meal since the party was at 3pm, I just wanted things for people to snack on while they were there. My friend and amazing baker, Sarah, of Sarah's Specialty Sweets made the cupcakes (thanks Sarah!).

I saw an easy tutorial on how to make a pendant banner, so I whipped one up so that I would have a little bit of decoration for her party.

These water bottle labels were so easy to put on and it made the waters look so cute! I just printed them on sticker paper, cut them apart and put them on the bottles.

One seriously amazing woman that I consider my sister and bestie, Sarah, made the cake and it was awesome! She is such a talented baker. Her cakes always look amazing and they taste even better than they look. If you want to check out some of her other cakes, you can check them out on her blog {click here}

She made the cake to match the invites

and sculpted the little girl to look like Zaralyn out of fondant.

Thank you soooooooo much Sarah!

For the cake and all of your help at the party! <3 ya!

When all the girls arrived, the salon put their names on a list and started doing hair and nails. I was worried that the girls would be bored waiting their turn to get all dolled up, but they were great. The girls were all so excited! The girls patiently waited their turn and snacked on treats while they waited. The stylists said that these little girls were better behaved than some parties that they had done with twelve year olds. :) Since Lynee was the birthday girl, she was up first.

Bry got to go in the chair next to Lynee.

All those pretty curls!

Grabbing some snacks...

I grabbed a few snapshots of some of the girls getting their hair and nails done. I didn't catch them all, but they were all so cute and having so much fun!

Above: Lila picking her nail sparkles

and Below: Carli getting her hair braided.

Sadie was sooo cute! She is Lila's little sister. She isn't quite two yet and she is such a cute little girl!

DanielleOlivia

Ella

Bry

Grace

Bry picked yellow/gold sparkle nails and was so excited about them.

Lynee took one look at Bry's nails and wanted the same color.

After all the girls were finished, we gathered the girls for a group picture. That is a lot of little girls. I didn't realize that we knew so many girls so close in age. We have met these cute girls from Primary, Gymnastics, Dance, and our neighbors. Quite a few of the girls are sisters.

From the back left to right:

Lila, Olivia, Zaralyn, Danielle, Taylor, Ella

Middle row: Lizzy, Sidney, Tori, Grace, Allison, Brylee, Ava

Last Row: Alexa, Tamara, Grace, Carli, Lizzy, Savannah

Sadie didn't want to be in the picture, but total that is 20 little girls! Wow!

They were all showing me their nails :) Then Zaralyn blew out the candles on her humongous cake! :)

And opened presents {Thank you so much everyone!}

We ate cake and Ice cream, and we were finished. I got rave reviews from all in attendance. Everywhere the girls see their friends, they are showing us how much of the glitter is left on their nails. The mom's are saying that the girls have been talking about wanting spa parties too, and a few mom's have even had to do repeat hair styles (so sorry!). I think the only complaint was from the mom's who were wanting to be getting their nails done too, lol. I was just glad that it was pretty easy to pull together. We have made some really amazing friends here in Pennsylvania! Thank you to all of them for helping us celebrate Zaralyn's birthday! We had so much fun!

Zaralyn turns five!

2011-10-06T20:54:00.008-06:00

This cute little girl wouldn't give us any clues on what she wanted for her birthday. She kept telling us that she "wanted to be surprised" and "don't tell me what you are getting me cause it has to be a surprise", and "you have to go shopping for my birthday when I am not here." Talk about some pressure! lol Justin and I got the idea to get her a doll house, and we actually went to Toys R Us and had one picked out, and I decided that I wanted to look online. I was really glad that I did because there was a much cuter one online for the same price. The only details that I think the manufacturer forgot was exactly how big this thing is. Justin was building it and I was getting a kick out of it making jokes that maybe the garage and patio weren't included in the square footage. This doll house is HUGE! Needless to say, Zaralyn (and Brylee) LOVE it! {and yes, she was surprised!} See how tall this thing is!?!
We spent the night of her actual birthday just hanging out as a family.

I wanted to make her a cake and have her help me. She loves doing that type of stuff, so I was very surprised that she didn't want to do that. She wanted to pick out a cake for her birthday. I tried to persuade her otherwise, but decided that if she wanted to pick out a cake for her birthday, she could. The girls love going past the bakery to look at all of the cakes at the grocery store.

She picked the candles because they were sparklers, apparently more trick than sparkle :)

Happy 5th Birthday Zaralyn!!

Happy 5th Birthday Zaralyn!

2011-09-29T12:37:00.002-06:00

Our sweet little Lynee is turning 5 today! She is growing up so fast into an adorable preschooler. Since it is her fifth birthday, here is what I got in response when I asked Zaralyn what were five things about her I could post?

"First of all I can dance and do gymnastics."

"And First of all I love to eat candy."

"and I like music!"

"Four I can clean up."

"Five my favorite color is purple."

Happy Birthday Zaralyn! Mommy and Daddy sure do love you!

35 weeks

2011-09-25T10:28:00.002-06:00

Five weeks left and our little man will be here.

I guess its time to finish decorating the nursery and pick a name.

Lynee's first day of preschool

2011-09-22T22:11:00.002-06:00

On Monday September 12, 2011 Zaralyn started her first day of Preschool. She was so excited to go! No tears at our house, she couldn't wait to get going. She was ready and it was just killing her waiting until noon to go to school. I could barely get her to take a few pictures for me. She was just too excited! I had a different outfit planned for her, but she picked this one out and wanted to wear it, and I approved, so it worked. Aren't her shoes cute? :)
This is her preschool. It is a home that is half a preschool and half their home. The preschool portion is amazing, and is done up just for 4 and 5 year olds in every way.

Zaralyn's teacher is Mrs. Condefer. She is amazing! She has done preschool for 30 years and you wouldn't believe how much she puts into teaching. We've been in school for two weeks now, and just the crafts and activities alone that Zaralyn has come home with are amazing. I know that this is going to be a great preschool for Zaralyn!

We are so excited for you to start school Zaralyn! Dad and Mom are so proud of you!

baby room book shelves

2011-09-22T21:57:00.003-06:00

Aren't they cute!?! I first saw these book shelves on {this blog-click here} and I knew I waned to do them for our baby boy's room. They were super easy, and I just love how much color they bring to the nursery.

Now if the rest of the room was just decorated. I guess I had better get on that before he gets here :)

My cute little soccer girl :)

2011-09-22T21:45:00.003-06:00

Washington D.C. -night tour

2011-09-22T21:21:00.006-06:00

Our last night in D.C. there was still a bunch of things that we hadn't really had a chance to see, so we decided to take the night tour. It was really nice to see the monuments all lit up at night. Very pretty. Not so easy to take pictures though. I tried to get a few, but they are not perfect at all. Anyways, it was fun. So here the pictures are...

The Washington MonumentThe Jefferson Memorial

The US Marine Corps Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial

The Vietnam Veterans War Memorial

The Korean War Memorial

And another shot of the Washington Monument

We finished up around 11pm and headed back to the hotel. It was a fun trip to D.C. and now Justin and I can mark it off our list of "to-see" while we are back east. Of course we barely skimmed the surface of what there is to see and do in D.C., but who knows maybe someday we will go back :)

Washington D.C. -part two

2011-09-22T20:44:00.006-06:00

One of our first stops on day three was the Archives Museum.
Behind those big black doors, was the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence as well as many other big important documents from our history. Pretty cool to have seen them.

Our next stop was the Natural History Museum. I am pretty sure that we could have spent days in here. It is so big and there are so many amazing things to look at.

This is the hope diamond- the biggest diamond in the world.

After going through the museum, we were ready for lunch, so we ate at the cafeteria. We were about ready to leave when we noticed this little girl sitting at the next table. She had a stuffed animal cat just like our girls do. The funniest thing-besides that they were almost identical- was that our cat and her cat were covered in band-aids. Seriously what are the odds? The little girl's dad and us were getting a pretty good kick out of it, so we got some pics with the cats. It was really funny.

Next stop- The Air and Space Museum

These books were what the girls picked as a souvenir from the Natural History Museum. Zaralyn was loving drawing on the pages.

Next stop- We headed towards the White House. I don't remember what this statue was, but it was on our way there. (See the Washington Monument to the left)

And all of the sudden this little girl wanted her picture taken over and over and over. She turned into a little ham!

Then Bry got in on the picture taking action.

The White House

Washington D.C. -part one

2011-09-19T21:34:00.004-06:00

I have soooo many pictures that I took while we were down in D.C., that I am not sure what to post. A little over 300 pictures is a little overwhelming. With that said, I tried to pull just a few to post. Justin's parents came to visit and so Justin requested the time that they would be here off. Since we knew that he would be off, we decided that we wanted to go somewhere and consider it our family summer vacation. We chose Washington D.C... Walking to the trolley tour our first day. The capital building.
Most of our time here was spent messing with our umbrellas. It poured rain pretty much the whole time we were there! So glad we brought along our cute little tour guide. :)

This is the trolley tour that we took to see the sights and the city. We got a two day pass and used it a lot! It was worth the money though. Pretty fun and easy.

Below is Union Station.

**I have to state that most of my pictures are taken from the trolley, so they are not all at perfect angles and a few are a little blurry. I did the best I could :)

the courthouse

the Library of Congress

The Washington Monument up in the clouds

The Capital Building...again

This is one museum that I really would have liked to go to. It is the Holocaust Museum, but I don't think that this would have been good to take the girls to, and there just wasn't enough time to do everything.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing- They said that they print 20 million dollars here every day just to replace old worn out bills.

We had told the girls that we could go to the National Zoo while we were in D.C. and they were so excited to go. Our very first day down was just pretty much a driving day, and we didn't plan any sight seeing. Zaralyn was so upset that we didn't go to the zoo that day, so we decided that we would go the next day no matter what. Well.... we went, but it was a very wet zoo trip!!

The National Zoo is one of only four zoos in the U.S. to have Panda Bears. The girls loved getting to see the bears!

By the time we finished of course the rain dried up. Oh well, the girls got to see the zoo, and we got to walk around for a few hours in the rain. Sounds fun, right? :)

This picture is taken from the trolley. It has the George Washington Statue, the White House, and The Washington Monument all lined up. It was a pretty sight!

That ended day one and day two. We got some dinner and spent the night swimming at the hotel. We were pretty warn out after all of the soaking wet rain walking :) More pictures to come...

7 year anniversary in NYC!

2011-09-19T12:14:00.003-06:00

On September 4th it was Justin and I's 7th wedding anniversary. It just so happened to work out that Justin got finished with work on the evening of the 2nd which was a Friday. My good friend Jutta offered to watch the girls for us the next day so that we could go do something fun. (Thank you so much Jutta!) We decided that this was a very small window of opportunity for us to get out by ourselves because the girls are pretty easy to be watched right now, and the new baby is almost here, so we took her up on her offer and headed to New York City for the day on Saturday the 3rd.Above is Justin and I in Times Square. Below is Juniors, a little deli restaurant just off of Times square that we stopped and had lunch at. It had delicious sandwiches with the yummiest meat on them. Juniors had an attached bakery that they made all of their bread and and rolls and desserts fresh. It was so yummy. Their cheesecakes looked delicious. I am still kicking myself a little for not getting a piece. :)

Just some smooching, it was our anniversary date after all :)

The main reason we went to New York was to go see a show on Broadway. We decided on Wicked. We booked our tickets the night before online and away we went. We chose this because we wanted to make sure and do something that we couldn't do with the kids around.

The show was amazing! If you have seen it, you know. If you haven't see it, I highly recommend it!

Us after the show.

After the show we walked around times square a little bit more, we walked down to Rockefeller Center, went in a few shops and just enjoyed walking around the city. We wanted to see a few other places that weren't within walking distance, so we got our car back out of the garage and drove. Our first sight was the Manhattan, NY LDS temple. It was pretty different to see. It is just on the corner in between other skyscrapers. I am pretty sure if there hadn't been an angel Moroni on top, we might not have found it, lol.

Traffic was really busy right here and there was no where to park, so we just got some pictures from the car. The picture below if you look on the bottom middle left, you see a red sign. At first we thought there was advertisements hung on the temple, but at closer inspection, the stone changed just slightly, and it was a different building. That was interesting to see.

After the temple we drove down to the 9/11 sight to see the work that was going on there. We drove through Soho and I really wanted to stop and shop, but that would have gotten a little too pricey. :)We got a quick dinner at Papaya Dog and then headed home to get our kiddos. It was a great day out with my husband. So glad I found such an amazing man marry. I too would do it again and again and again. Thank you for my beautiful flowers. Love you babe!

hurricane irene

2011-09-05T23:59:00.002-06:00

Hurricane Irene made some pretty big news around our neck of the woods. Luckily our family was safe and sound. The only damage we sustained was the loss of this tree. It completely uprooted and fell backwards into the woods. Glad it didn't fall towards the house :) People just 10 minuets away from us have been without power and water for days and emergency shelters were still being used for people to eat and shower until just a few days ago. So glad we weren't affected like that. Anyways, here are a few pictures of our tree...

lynee's first day of soccer

2011-08-28T21:32:00.003-06:00

Zaralyn has wanted to play soccer for a few years now, so I finally signed her up. Saturday was her first day of soccer, and she was so excited to get to go. Isn't she a cute little soccer girl? I was surprised how much she picked up on, even on her first day.

Good job Lynee! I am excited to get to watch you learn soccer this fall.
**disclaimer- Girls are so emotional!! Zaralyn was so excited to go play, that she was annoyingly ecstatic! Then when the boys on her team were a little rough and took the ball from her she was crying on the field. Her coach was great and consoled her and got her to play again, and then she was ecstatic all over again.

Brylee on the other hand was so upset that she isn't 4 yet and can't play until she is. She was basically in tears on the sidelines the whole time.

I was feeling like there is no way I am doing this for the next two months if these two are gonna act this way, lol.

**Brylee told me this morning that she is no longer 3. She said her birthday was last week, and she is now 5. I got a good laugh at that. Nice try Bry. These girls keep me on my toes, thats for sure.

Scranton Ward Camp Out

2011-08-28T20:45:00.005-06:00

On Friday (8/26/11) our ward had a ward camp out. Unfortunately Justin had to work, but I still wanted to go and support our ward along with the Young Women since we had worked so hard on putting together the talent show for the evening. The camp out was held at the Priesthood Restoration Site up on the Susquehanna River. It was neat to go up and see where Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdry received the Aaronic Priesthood by John the Baptist and then baptized each other in the River. You can read more about this site here. Some friends, the Majors, took the girls and I down to the river to see where the baptisms occurred, and where people can still be baptised today. The girls loved throwing rocks into the river.

This is the spot where Joseph and Oliver were baptized and they still baptize people here today. So very pretty and calm.

This is the monument that stands by the road. There is also a cemetery just off of this that Joseph and Emma's first son is buried in. I was told the headstone is still there, but unfortunately I didn't have time to go see it. Another time. :)

A few other bits of information that I "unofficially" picked up while up there was that the church has bought many acres of land around the site and river, and is buying much more of the land that is around this site. The foundations of Joseph and Emma's first home (Where translation of the Book of Mormon occured) is still there, along with a few other homes. The church has plans to restore the area to the state it was when Joseph was there, much like Palmyra is.

In other notes, the Young Women did a great job with the "talent-less" talent show along with all the members that participated. The girls and I stayed until around ten hanging around the camp fire, making smores and visiting, and then drove the 45minutes home and slept in our own beds. It was a great night.

bran new hardware

2011-08-16T23:44:00.004-06:00

From this...

to this...

When we bought this house, I knew that all of the gold hardware had to go. I am super excited to report that after living here 11 months, we finally did it! Wahoo!! The satin nickel looks sooo much better in my eyes. We changed out all of the hinges, door knobs, door stops, and ball changes, and hand railing hardware (by we, I mean Justin, lol. I changed one hinge and handed him screws). Luckily all the kitchen cabinet hardware and lighting in the downstairs isn't gold, so no need to change it there. The upstairs lighting is getting changed room by room as I find what I want. I am just so happy to finally have this done. It is such a small change, but it seems to make all the difference.

a few more swimming lesson pics

2011-08-16T23:34:00.002-06:00

I uploaded the pictures off of my camera tonight, and what do you know, I did take a few pictures of swimming lessons. So here they are. What cute little swimmers I have :)

baby room paint

2011-08-16T23:10:00.002-06:00

The before: Nothing too exciting, just white paint and gold hardware (yuck!). The only thing we had done with this room since we moved in was add the shutters when we did the rest of the house.

I had Benjamin Moore paint chips, Home Depot Paint Chips, and Lowes paint chips. The ones on the wall were the final contenders, but Home Depot ended up winning. The color I chose was Behr's "glass bead".

And the after.

I know that the color doesn't show up that well in pictures, but I love it. I took this picture to try and show the contrast from the white. It looks so nice. I wanted the overall paint color to be really subtle so that I can add in fun pops of color through out the rest of the decor.

I am excited with how the paint looks, and I can't wait to get the rest of the room put together and decorated. I will post more as I go. :)

pregnant mug shot

2011-08-16T22:56:00.004-06:00

Not too excited to post this picture of myself, but my mom just about begged the other day for a pregnant picture, so here you go Mom. :) This picture was taken a few weeks ago when I was 27 weeks pregnant.

swimming lessons

2011-08-11T22:18:00.004-06:00

This summer the girls have been doing swimming lessons with a private instructor. I asked on facebook for swimming lesson suggestions in the area, and a friend suggested a lady named Pat Cooney through Marywood University. Needless to say, I am sooooo happy that we decided to go this route because the girls have improved so much! They were very dependent on their floaties at the beginning, and now they are both swimming much much better! Each girl got a 30 minute lesson each time we went. (We had 6 lessons total). Pat was great with the girls and made it a lot of fun, and taught them all sorts of tricks to help them remember how to swim. She was so good with the girls, and they just loved her!

Brylee did great, and loved playing with all of Pat's cool pool toys. Bry would talk about which toy she was going to pick first, and was so excited to get in the water and swim!

Zaralyn made the biggest improvement this summer. She went from a 4 bubble down to just a 2 bubble. Pat said that Zaralyn could swim at that point, it was all just in her head. Having the bubble on gave her the extra boost of confidence.

By the 4th or 5th lesson, Zaralyn got brave enought at a friends pool that she wanted to try swimming without any flotation aide at all, and she did awesome! She can't swim long distances or anything, but she most definatly can swim! Way to go Zaralyn, I am so proud of you! You are making great progress at swimming, and you continue to get better and better and braver and braver (sorta scares me sometimes, lol) each time you swim.

I am so glad that we decided to go this route of lessons. I can definitely tell that they were worth it. These little girls are quite the little fishies. They sure love the water!

-Sorry for all of the bad pictures. I have been awful at taking my camera anywhere, so these are all from my phone, and most of them from the first few lessons. Whoops! Better luck next time, lol

date night

2011-08-01T09:35:00.002-06:00

Oohh I love this man! And when we get to hire a babysitter and sneak away from the kids for a few hours for a little "us time", it makes me love this man even more! Even if "us time" includes going to Babies R Us to buy a car seat for the next little one, I'll take it! Love you babe!

Covington Parade

2011-07-27T21:39:00.002-06:00

This summer the girls dance studio was in the Covington parade. The girls were so excited to get to be in a parade with their dance studio, and even more excited that their dance studio was handing out popcicles!

I walked the parade route with them and helped cut open the popcicles. Thank goodness it was a pretty short parade route. :) The parade ended at the Covington Fireman's picnic. It is a fundraiser that they do for the firestation and they have a carnival. The girls loved riding the rides with their friend Lizzy.

The girls had so much fun, and when we got home, they wanted something warm to eat. I made them some chicken noodle soup and they discussed which rides were our favorite. They talked about every single one. It was really cute. It was a really fun night!

chair before and after

2011-07-11T17:39:00.003-06:00

This is my first ever attempt at reupholstering anything. I bought this chair right after we moved in and didn't have any furniture yet. It is super comfortable, but the fabric is not what I am going for in the decorating department. I had plans to reupholster it right away, but I couldn't ever find any fabric that I liked. I saw a chair that my sister Cassy had done using this fabric, and I called her to see if she could get me some of the fabric. She was kind enough to go grab me some and mail it on over. Thanks Cass! So here you go...Before and After...

I like all the pretty lines of the chair.

I think it turned out pretty good for my first try, but I think next time maybe having the right tools to do the job might have helped. Oh well, I accomplished it, and for a first project, I am happy with how it turned out.

I am going to miss this...

2011-07-03T16:38:00.003-06:00

I was laying in bed this morning feeling baby boy squirm and kick and move all over. I thought of what an amazing feeling it is to have a tiny little life inside of you. It is so indescribable. Justin put his hand on my tummy to feel baby boy's head (or rear-not sure which is was) poking way up out of my stomach, and I had an overwhelming feeling that I need to enjoy this, because one day I am going to miss this. I feel like this is a big transition from the first trimester that was full of "We are never doing this again!" feelings, what with all of the nausea and vomiting and tiredness and just general sick feeling. And now, as we are feeling like this will most likely be our last baby, I am feeling all sentimental about being pregnant. I know it comes with so much pain, but what an amazing amount of joy it has too. Right now in the second trimester I am enjoying being pregnant with this little life growing inside of me.

**I just hope that I can remember this post next trimester. :)

new calling

2011-06-26T16:05:00.003-06:00

Today I got released from my calling as the Nursery Leader and was put in as the Young Women Advisor. The whole YW presidency was released and new leaders were called. I am excited to work with the new presidency. I think that this group of ladies will be great for the young women of our ward. I was a little apprehensive about accepting the calling as I feel like I have my hands pretty full right now. Justin just accepted (was forced to accept) a supervisor position at work and it means that he will no longer be able to come home every day. :'( Not really happy about that part. That with the fact that I am due in October, and I already have two little girls that apparently are going to get a taste of YW early, it feels like a lot. But I know that the presidency knows my situation, and they are willing to accommodate me, and it will all work out. Our ward doesn't have too many YW right now, so I am technically the Laurals advisor, but I am the only advisor, so I will be over all of the girls. It should be a pretty interesting and fun calling. Wish me luck!

strawberry picking

2011-06-25T22:16:00.002-06:00

On Wednesday I got a call from a friend who said that her and another friend were going strawberry picking, and they wanted to know if I wanted to go. This was something that I had already talked to Justin about doing, so I was really excited to be invited to go. We got up early Thursday and were out to pick strawberries by 9:30am (the field is only about 15 minutes from our house). The girls loved the tractor ride out to the fields, and even more they LOVED picking strawberries! They each brought their buckets and loved filling them up. They even dumped theirs into my buckets a few times and then filled them up again. They could have stayed and picked berries all day.

Look how yummy those look! Not too bad of a pic from my cell phone. :) (all these pics are)

The girls with our delicious strawberries. Its a good thing that they didn't mind if you ate some. The girls both were eating them as they went, and I am pretty sure that Bry ate just about as many as went into her bucket. She even made sure that quite a few in her bucket were "juicy enough" first. :)

Then we stopped at the store to get a few supplies and came home and made 25 jars of freezer jam. Plus bagged around 9 cups of strawberries into smaller bags to use for smoothies later. The girls helped me, and they are loving getting to eat the jam. I was just proud of myself for actually making the jam. I have helped my mom many times, but this was my first time ever all by myself, and it tastes delicious!

going on a frog hunt

2011-06-23T23:07:00.003-06:00

Where have my girly girls gone?? Since when do MY girls love frogs and snakes (in containers) and squish bugs all by themselves?? Not sure where all of their confidence has come from, because I pretty much hate all of the above, lol. After we got home from the girls dance recital, we noticed these tiny frogs in our yard. We had seen them earlier around our neighborhood, but never in our yard before. Since Justin was home, he started catching the frogs and showing the girls. Zaralyn really surprised me that she wanted to hold the frog. She was unsure at first, but after she held it for a second, she loved it. Sorry for so many pictures, I was playing with my camera, but I think I got some pretty great shots... After Justin and the girls had caught a few, they wanted to keep them, so they grabbed a bucket and started on a frog hunt. These little guys were everywhere!

Lynee got so brave that she started catching them all on her own. I didn't know whether to be grossed out or proud of her, lol. It took Bry a few more minutes to warm up, but a few minutes later, she was holding the froggies that her daddy would catch for her.

Needless to say in just a few minutes they caught a bunch of frogs.

We took them to the back of our yard and released them. We counted them as we let them go and we counted a mix of 45 frogs and toads.

This one just about hopped right out of the picture. :)

This adventure made the girls even more happy that their daddy was home. I definatly wouldn't have done this without Justin. I guess its good that he was able to have a day off and be around. :)

Dance Recital

2011-06-23T22:20:00.004-06:00

Saturday June 18, 2011 was the girls actual dance recital for Arabesque Academy of Dancing. After so much hard work this year, and this past week, it was so fun to just relax and watch the show. Both girls did so good, and I could really tell that all these practices this week paid off. I am so proud of these cute little girls!!

Quick snapshot before going on...

After the show. The girls in their tap outfits.
The girls loved their flowers and suckers

We were all super happy that Justin got off work around 8 am that morning, and he was able to be there for the show! The girls sure love having their daddy there watching them!

My cute little girls and me. Love you little ladies!

dress rehearsal

2011-06-17T21:01:00.003-06:00

These cute girls did so good at their dress rehearsal tonight. I am so excited for their dance recital tomorrow!! I took a few videos, but I can't seem to get them to upload, so I will just try again later. :)

stage rehearsal

2011-06-16T21:34:00.005-06:00

Tonight the girls had stage rehearsal for their dance recital on Saturday. They were pretty excited to get to dance on the big stage.

The girls with their cute little friend Lizzy

Miss Amy, the girls just love her!

The girls whole dance class.

Lynee is on the far right, and Brylee is second from the left.

Tomorrow is Dress rehearsal so we will be back and in full costume, so it will be another fun night. The girls are so excited to perform!

Its a BOY!

2011-06-10T21:55:00.007-06:00

Yesterday (06/10/11) we had our big 20 week ultrasound. And our little one was very cooperative. We took the girls with us so that we could all be there to find out the sex of the baby. I was pretty excited and couldn't sleep much the night before. The baby was very active and posed for quite a few pictures. It was fun to get to see. The tech could just hold the ultrasound wand in one place and we got to watch the baby move his arms up around his face and back down, and he would move his legs and kick. He was very active, and has been at every ultrasound (I've had 4 now) that we have had.

Our little guy wasn't even shy and showed us the goods. It is definitely a BOY!

He was all over the place. At one point he was laying sideways, and then all of the sudden he was completely turned the other way and then a minute later he was sitting breech, it was as if he was doing some aerobics in there. We were all getting a pretty good kick out of it. In this picture below, baby is now sitting with his head to the right, and belly to the left.
and then he was back with his head to the left and the belly to the right. He was looking right at the ultrasound wand with his arms back up by his head.

Everything at the ultrasound looked great. He was measuring around 13ounces and 10 1/2inches which put him at 20wks 5days (I am currently exactly 20 weeks). We got a good look at his brain and heart and everything looked good. He has some long legs, chubby cheeks, a big belly, and everything was measuring right where it should be. His heart was beating at 141. I love ultrasounds! I fall even more in love with this little guy every time I get to look at him.

Sesame Place

2011-06-10T20:46:00.008-06:00

Sesame Place is a Sesame Street theme park that is a little north of Philadelphia. We wanted to do something summer vacation like with the girls since Justin will likely work most of the summer. We figured we might as well take advantage of his time off. So we planned it out, and got up early Thursday morning and headed down to it. The girls were thrilled to be going! There were a bunch of "dry"rides to go on.
and it was so hot!! Look at poor Lynee's face!

There was also a bunch of really large climbing nets that the girls couldn't wait to go on. Justin and I weren't as excited about this part, and I opted to wait out and hold our bag. :) Thanks for being a good sport babe.

Bry was such a trooper. She loved going on them, but it was pretty tough for her to do. Look at her little red face.

We packed a picnic lunch and ate it in the car in the air conditioning. Then we changed into our swim suits and spent the rest of the day on the water park and water rides. It felt really good to cool off in the water.

Brylee

Zaralyn

At 4pm there was a street parade with all of the sesame street characters. The girls thought it was pretty fun even though they are not really that into Sesame Street.

Watching the parade.

After the parade we swam a little bit longer and

hit the lazy river a few more times. I think it was all of our favorite.

It was a long day, but it was a lot of fun. We stayed until around 6pm and then headed back home.

As we were walking out to the car, these geese were out in the parking lot. Zaralyn said "Hurry mom! Get a picture!!" So I did. These are for you Lynee!We had a really fun day, and we were really glad that we went. I guess this was our official kick off to summer week. I hope all of this summer is this much fun!

daddy's home...so what to do?

2011-06-10T09:02:00.003-06:00

Justin finally got home from working down by Pittsburgh for a few weeks, and had a few days off. (His boss told him he could have until after our ultrasound Friday off). So we planned to take full advantage of his time off. Since he had a few days, we quickly compiled the to-do list as well as the fun list. We have been very busy since Tuesday!

I had quite the hunny do list written down for him of things that needed done around the house and yard. Along with all of those fun projects,

We have eaten a breakfast of Biscuits and Gravy, Bacon, Eggs, Orange Juice, and Milk out on the back deck .

Let the girls run through the sprinkler in the back yard.

BBQ'd steak and had fresh corn on the cob and watermelon out on the back deck again.

Took the 4-wheelers out for a ride, and then washed them in the driveway. (They were very muddy and leaf covered)

We built a fire in the back yard fire pit and cooked hot dogs and smores over the flames.

and that brings us to a few pictures... Our back yard is so green and pretty right now! (Very hot and humid, but pretty)

We even had a few neighbors stop by and make a few smores with us. That was pretty fun! The girls loved it!

As we were putting out the fire and cleaning up, Justin saw a fire fly and pointed it out to all of us. Before long, we noticed that our back yard was filled with fire flies! It was so pretty! There were little moving flashing lights everywhere. The girls and I had never seen them before. This is now becoming a nightly tradition to go out once it gets dark and watch the fire flies. We figured we had better go hot tubbing and watch the show, lol. It has been a fun week, and so nice to have Justin back around again. Makes for 3 happy ladies! (And one happy man, lol)

Happy Birthday Allisha!

2011-06-03T20:09:00.002-06:00

I just want to say Happy Birthday to my best friend and sister Allisha! I love her so much, and I am so grateful for our relationship that we have. We talk on the phone almost daily, and she just gets me. Unfortunately I have been having withdraws lately as I live a million miles away, and she is in the ICU at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center from complications of her c-section, and can't talk on the phone due to her breathing tube. She is doing much better though. Today is day 12 of her being at the hospital and it is still going to be a long road to a full recovery, but she is making great progress every day. I am so glad that her doctors are taking awesome care of her.

Allisha,
I miss you sooo much! It is so good to be able to finally start to visit with you through Skype. I can see how much improvement you have made, and it makes me so excited to see you getting better. You are such an amazing woman, and I love you so much! I hope you have as good of birthday as possible under the current circumstances. I know that your sweet husband will be sure to take care of you. Wish I could be there to wish you a happy birthday in person, but I guess for now this will have to do. I love you sis!
Love,
Nichole

Pittsburgh Zoo

2011-06-02T22:09:00.007-06:00

This past Sunday Justin called me around 6:30pm and told me that he was going to have Monday on stand by, so he couldn't leave, but if we wanted to come down to Pittsburgh, we would get to hang out and see each other. Because it was already so late, and it is about a 5 1/2 hour drive down there, I wasn't too excited about it at first, but Justin sorta talked me into it, and once I decided that we were going and told the girls, they were so excited! They started tearing up their room and bringing me clothes to pack. It was pretty cute to see them so excited. So we packed up and left our house around 8pm. It was a really long drive, but we got down to Pittsburgh around 1am and went to bed. The next morning, (memorial day) we got up, had breakfast at the hotel, and headed off to the Pittsburgh Zoo. The girls were so excited, and happy all day! The pictures pretty much speak for themselves... The girls loved the sea lions

The Alligator was a really big hit too. Along with the snakes!! When did my cute little girls start liking snakes??? I kept making a fuss about being in the snake exhibit, and Zaralyn kept saying "If you don't like it Mom, then just don't look."

Justin let the girls go on this little boat ride. They loved looking at all of the fish and plants. It was pretty funny because a little bit older girl rode this right before the girls did, and when she got off she told her dad, "That was the most boring thing ever!" I guess age and perspective have a little something to do with that, lol.

We caught one of the presentations that the zoo does, and the girls got to walk up and touch a few animals. This first one was some sort of Lizard.

And the second was a COCKROACH!! Sick!

Glad the girls didn't touch that one.

These were the scariest creatures of all!! :)

The zoo also has an aquarium in it. The girls like all the fish, but they really seemed to like the shark the best.

After the Zoo we went back into Downtown Pittsburgh to find the Primanti Brothers. Justin had seen a show on Food Network about their "almost famous" sandwiches.

They put the fries and coleslaw (it is a vinaigrette coleslaw) all on the sandwich, and you can't order the sandwich any other way. They did make us a simple ham and cheese for the kids though, so that was good. And the sandwiches were pretty tasty. Not the best sandwich I have ever had in my life, but defiantly worth trying.

And that was pretty much our trip. We went back to the hotel and took the girls swimming and just had fun with their daddy. It was good for all of us. Justin had to start another well on Tuesday, so the girls and I left around 5pm and made the long boring drive back home. We really wished that he was coming home with us, but he should be home next week sometime. We will just make the best of the situation, and be grateful that he has a good job.

**Thanks for the invite babe. It was so good to see you!! We love you! Come home soon!

Trophy Day!

2011-05-23T19:44:00.007-06:00

Today the girls had trophy day at their Gymnastics class at United Sports Academy. We have been talking about this day for weeks, and the girls have been SOOOOO excited! They couldn't wait to get to trophy day and get to show off their moves and most importantly get their trophys! They started with their warm up (The lighting was awful! Florescent lighting and not much of it, so some of the pics are grainy)

They showed us some floor routine, trampoline and jumping into the foam pit, and then went to the balance beam. They walked across it (forwards and backwards), and then did a somersault on the beam (with Mr. Brad's help)
and then of course did their landing :)

Zaralyn was so serious when she would get up on the bar. We were looking at these pictures, and I asked her why she was so serious. I asked, "were you nervous?" She got a big old goofy grin on her face and nodded yes with a giggle.

After all of the "showing the parents their moves" was over, all of the kids got their trophys.
The girls were soooo happy!!

and I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the trophys. They even had their names engraved on them. They are pretty cool!

My cute little gymnasts

The girls love their teacher Mr. Brad. They tell me all sorts of things that they are going to tell him when they go to gymnastics. (Sorta scary, who knows what they are actually telling him! lol) But I am glad that they have such an amazing instructor.

a lot, of everything

2011-05-22T20:30:00.004-06:00

The last few weeks have been full of a lot of ups and downs. Throughout the month of April, Justin and I had decided that while he was really enjoying his current job, there was a better opportunity out there for us. It didn't take much looking to find some options. Justin has been offered and accepted a position with Sperry (Halliburton's directional drilling). The position is the same thing he was doing before, but it has much much better benefits and a few other perks like a company truck. We are really grateful to be able to switch jobs with very few hic ups, but it hasn't come without its price. Justin has been gone and working A-LOT! He worked 12 days straight with Cathedral Energy, and then without having any time off, drove straight down to the Pittsburgh area to begin a 13 day orientation with Sperry. Then, with not even one day off after that, they sent him out on another job that lasted 7 days. He was supposed to get this weekend off, and go out on a job the beginning of this week, but the only day that he actually got off was Saturday because around 9am this morning, he got a phone call, and they need him back down by Pittsburgh to go out on another well. Ugh! Not my favorite phone call while the Sunday morning rush to get to church was going on. Needless to say he is gone...again, and the girls and I are here, hanging out, missing him. Hopefully he won't be gone too long this time, maybe just a week or two, and then he should be back on a rig by our house. (Hopefully! Cross your fingers!) I do want to say that we are so happy for this job, it is a very good thing, and I don't want it to sound like I am not grateful for it, I really really am! We are just going through this weird transitional period where we don't know exactly how everything will work. I am sure that it will all work its self out.

In the mean time, the girls and I have been trying to stay busy. A few weeks ago, we packed a picnic lunch and spent the afternoon at the park. Just the three of us. The girls were in heaven! I think we will have to do this a bunch this summer. Poor things got some pretty fierce farmer tans though. They didn't mind though and thought Aloe Vera was pretty dang cool though, lol.

I am pretty sure that my new motto is: "while the husbands is away, disaster strikes?!?" Just kidding I hope that isn't always going to be the case. Lucky me though, our basement flooded! It wasn't as bad as that sounds, the walls and everything are just fine and structurally sound, but see that white door that leads outside? It has Belco doors over the top of it. With all of this rain we have been getting, water was puddling up and flowing down the cement steps and seeping under the door and soaking into the carpet. I got to clean up lots of wet toys that had been left out, and more importantly sopping wet board games. Just about everyone that the girls have. It was awesome! I had no way to get the water back out of the carpet, so I had to call professionals to extract the water and dry out the carpet so that we don't have mold issues in the future. We are all dried out now, and while Justin was on his one day off, he climbed up on the roof, and we found the real problem of the basement leakage. The downspouts on the gutters were plugged, so the back cornor of the house must have been the low spot because all of the rain water from the whole roof was dumping over top of the basement doors.

Speaking of rain, Friday night we were having a mellow storm, and the girls are obsessed with jumping in puddles, so their daddy took them out into the road to splash. They loved it!

I know, random weird post, but I figured I might as well catch up before I get more behind. :)

alligator tears

2011-05-13T23:02:00.005-06:00

Justin got home around 10:30ish last night, after being gone for 11 days. I let the kids watch a movie in their room so that they would get to see him when he got home. They were so excited to see him, and then out just a few minutes later. It was perfect. Unfortunately Justin had to catch a flight back to down to Pittsburgh at 1:15pm today to pick up his work truck and drive it back. We got up around nine and had breakfast, and then Justin was packing his bag to go out on the next job, and we also were draining the hot tub and replacing the filters, and a few other random things that I was waiting for help from Justin to do. Time went way too fast, and we had to head down to the airport before we knew it. The girls seemed fine with their daddy going on a plane, and we were all in a pretty good mood. We got to the airport, and Justin kissed and hugged the girls and I and told us all that he loved us, and then walked into the airport. I got into the drivers seat and started driving the loop to get out of the airport. All of the sudden I hear crying coming from the back seat. I turn my head to see what is going on, and I see Zaralyn with a red face, big ol alligator tears, the saddest frown across her face. She was just sobbing. I asked her what was wrong (already knowing) and she replied. "I miss daddy. I don't want him to go." I don't know if I have ever felt so bad and helpless ever. I had just entered the on ramp to the interstate, and I debated pulling over since her tears had apparently become contagious (probably just pregnant hormones), but I decided that if I pulled over now to give her a hug or try and console her that it might just make it worse. We talked about why daddy had to leave, but she is 4 and defiantly doesn't understand. I felt so helpless that I couldn't find a way for her to understand. I can tell that she just really has missed him. She always says that she loves it when Daddy is home. I luv luv luv that my children love their daddy so much, even if it does make it hard for them to let him leave. I told her that he would be back and she did start to cheer up a bit. It made for a somewhat rough day, but I am reminded how grateful I am for my husband and all that he does for our family. We sure have missed him lately!

Nov. 2010

lucky to be a mom

2011-05-08T13:08:00.005-06:00

Today I can't help but just feel grateful for two little girls and a baby on the way that make me feel so loved. How lucky am I to get to be these kids mom? I always knew from an early age, that I wanted to be a mom. I also have school and career dreams, but those always seem come behind the opportunity and privilege of being a mom. I love being a mom, and everything that comes with it. I read a few other blogs about parents that have lost their children, and I can't help but hurt for them. I can' t imagine my life without my sweet babies. They are so special and important to me. I love them so much. They make everything worth it.

Oooh, I could look at baby pictures all day. They are growing up too fast!

Thank you sweet little ones.
I love you.
Love your Mommy

Time

2011-05-05T17:12:00.005-06:00

Isn't time a funny thing? Time is so relative in the moment. I think it is funny how I can be so impatient sometimes and find it so hard to wait. I guess that is sort of my personality, but it can be very hard to wait for something as simple as a piece of information. I feel like with being pregnant, October feels like forever away. It is barely May, and we still have all summer, and then Zaralyn will start pre-school in the fall, and then, after all that waiting, the baby will be here in October. See what I mean? Time is a funny thing. From past experience I know that all too soon I will be worried that we don't have enough time to prepare and get things ready. But isn't that how it always works? Time seems so slow when moving forward, but looking back is the complete opposite. Today marks the one year anniversary of my brother's passing. One. Whole. Year. It seems pretty hard to believe that all that time has gone by. It seems like it was yesterday. I remember this day one year ago vividly, and at the time, it felt like it was hard to get through one minute. Not to mention one day, and then a week and so on. It was and still is so hard to believe that Dustin is really gone. But I suppose that time works in other ways as well, because even though I still miss Dustin terribly, and wish he could be here with us, with his wife and children, time gives us knowledge and understanding. I now know that Ashley is so strong and that she will be okay without Dustin. She doesn't have to like it, but she can make it. I know that I appreciate my husband all the more watching Ashley have to continue this life without hers. I know how much I really loved and cared for Dustin. Dustin was an amazing older brother and I am so thankful for the time that I had with him. So grateful that just two weeks before he was gone, I got to sit in the foyer of our church and talk with him. So grateful that we moved where we did the year prior to his death so that we were in the same ward, and these church talks were a common occurrence. I am so grateful for my brother. He was the best brother, son, husband, father, and friend that anyone could have asked for. He is missed by so many. It is hard to believe that so much time has passed, but I just try and remember that even though each day gets further from the last time we saw him, it also gets us one day closer to the day we will get to see him again. I love you Dustin!

MSC graduation May 2008

worst.doctors.apointment.ever.

2011-05-04T22:04:00.003-06:00

Last week I got some blood test results back that said that my thyroid levels are now low. Of course I am concerned, and was told that I needed another appointment with the endocrinologist. The appointment was set for yesterday, and this is how it went...

I woke up that morning to Zaralyn puking on her bed. She was obviously not feeling well, and continued to throw up several more times that morning managing to also get throw up on Brylee's bed, and my bed, pillows blankets, you name it. Since Justin is out of town, and I didn't have anyone to watch the kids (nor would I even ask anyone to when my poor girl is sick) I called the doctors office to see if I could change or cancel the appointment. The receptionist was less than pleasant, and although I told her my child was sick, she told me that she could cancel the appointment, but since it was less than 24 hours in advance, they would have to charge me a $50 fee. AND they wouldn't reschedule my appointment until that fee was paid. (What a total rip off!!) So I told her not to worry about it, I would try to make it there.

I thought Zaralyn was starting to recover, she hadn't thrown up in the last hour or so, so I gave her a bag and we discussed how to throw up if she needed to. She was really good about holding the bag on the way to the doctors office. I then put the bag in my purse and told her to let me know if she was going to throw up again.

We go into the appointment and the nurse that came in and took my blood pressure and what not was not necessarily rude, she just wasn't really nice either. She basically didn't even talk to me, she just grabbed my arm and did my pulse, blood pressure, asked me if I was having any new symptoms... and then left. I didn't think too much about it until later, but looking back, it was adding to all of the fun.

Poor Zaralyn at this point is curled up in a ball on a chair pretty much looking like death warmed over. Brylee on the other hand had pushed her go button and was in all out "drive mom crazy" mode. She kept asking me "what's that red thing?" "Thats a sharps container Bry." Whats it for, mom?" "Its for the doctor to put needles in." Then she wanted up on the bench with me, I told her no, then she started throwing a fit and climbing up on me, so I picked her up, and then she wanted down, and she was asking over and over again "whats that red thing?" It was seriously non stop. In between all of this commotion I am trying to discuss the blood test results with the doctor, and I could tell that he wasn't too impressed with me bringing my children along with me (I called first people!!). In a last attempt to try and get Brylee to settle down I gave her my cell phone with a game on it. I picked paint because it was the quietest one on there. I handed her the phone and she starts throwing a fit because that isn't the game she wanted. I was so done with her, but of course you can't really discipline her with a doctor sitting in the room with you. (Awkward!). The doc was not really giving me all that much information (not that it was easy with all the commotion going on), and what he was telling me, I wasn't too happy with. He was pretty much brushing me off and told me not to worry about the blood tests, it was probably just because I have been nauseous with the pregnancy. He wanted me to test again in three months, and then he would just see me at my next scheduled appointment in DECEMBER. (Seriously?!?) Then Bry comes over and says "Mom, I have to go potty." I tell her to hold it, we're almost done, and of course that lasted all of about thirty seconds until she was dancing around ready to pee her pants at any second. I ask the doctor, "do you have a bathroom that I can just take her to really fast?" He gave me a super annoyed look and said "I am almost done here, the bathroom is out past the waiting room. Why don't you just go out there and I will bring up your paperwork when I am finished." (Seriously?!? She's three! What am I supposed to do? Let her pee on your floor??? Ugh!) So I take the girls out to the bathroom. Then walk back to the receptionist area where you check out. I ask the lady for whatever the doctor was going to give me, and... Zaralyn throws up all over the floor without any warning. I couldn't believe my luck. Of course there is roughly 10 people standing within a reasonable distance and no one even offers so much as a paper towel to help clean it up. I had to go back out to the bathroom in the waiting area, get paper towels, try and scrub it out of the carpet with them, take the paper towels back to the bathroom to throw them away, wash my hands, and go back to the receptionist area to get my paper work. No one even so much offers me any assistance what so ever. They stood there gawking like we had the plague. (Isn't this a DOCTORS OFFICE??) When I get back up there, the lady askes me, "Ewww...Is she sick?" I just replied with an "apparently" Then while the lady is trying to come out of her trance and snap into getting me some paperwork so we can get the heck out of there, Zaralyn spots the dum dums on the counter and wants one. I tell her no since she is sick. Then Brylee wants one and I tell her no since her sister can't have one either. This sends Brylee into an all out tantrum. I picked her up kicking and screaming, and told the lady (who still wasn't getting me any paperwork) that whatever the doctor needed to give me, just mail it to me. I walked out of there holding Brylee who is now screaming at me to let her go, and Zaralyn crying because she doesn't feel good and doesn't want to walk (I felt so bad for her). I got the kids to the car, buckled them up, got in the front seat, and dialed my husband. He answered and I fell to pieces. I litterly sobbed to him and told him my sob story of the doctors appointment that I just experienced. What a wreck! I was upset with the kids, upset with the whole doctors office and staff and also how I was treated and basically disregarded by the doctor. Lets just say that I won't be going back to him, or his office. Seriously was the worst doctors appointment that I have ever had. EVER.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-25T21:54:00.003-06:00

The Easter Bunny found us again this year, and since the girls trycicles were getting way too small, he thought it would be a good idea to get the girls bikes for Easter. Smart Bunny. :) Brylee's Easter Gift
Zaralyn's Easter Gift
Bry's Pinkalicious bike up close

Zaralyn got a purrfect pet bike, and she loved that the kitten looked just like her favorite (stuffed) pet Dinah

Lynee keeps telling me the she is so happy with what the Easter Bunny brought her. I am so glad she is, looks like the Easter Bunny did it right. :)

Brylee is so fast on her bike already. Although it has been raining, so I have been letting them ride them around the living room, we'll see how brave she is once we are outside. I am sure that both of them will do fine though. Both girls were beyond ready for "big girl bikes".

This last pic is just thrown in because I don't feel like doing a complete separate post. We went to the Easter Egg Hunt at the girls gymnastics, and the Easter Bunny was there. Lynee was really scared to take a picture, and if you can see she wouldn't even let Justin's hand go. Silly girl! Mom was just glad that the bunny was there since we never got around to taking them to see him at the mall. Thanks Easter Bunny! See you next year :)

Coloring Easter Eggs

2011-04-25T21:27:00.005-06:00

The pictures pretty much explain it all. We colored eggs on Saturday, and the girls loved it. The end.

Can you see her "z"?

Easter Decorations

2011-04-25T21:07:00.003-06:00

I love love love planting Easter grass every year, and so do the girls. It makes it feel so springy to have it growing all over the house. Isn't it so cute? Between the girls and I, we ended up growing eight baskets full of it. It has been a lot of fun. These cute birds are from my mom, she was telling me how cute these little birds from Real Deals were, and that I should go get some. I asked her if she was just trying to make me feel bad since there is not a Real Deals anywhere close to me. A few days later I had a mysterious package filled with these cute metal birds. Thanks for thinking of me Mom, it really made my day, and really really made my Easter decor! :)
Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures until after I had cut my grass. It isn't as cute until it grows back. Plus I had a little help cutting from Zaralyn. She had a really good time cutting the grass, so it got a REALLY good cut, lol.

fixing the back porch fence

2011-04-25T20:38:00.004-06:00

I am so glad that I have a handy husband. When we came home last Saturday evening, there was a really bad wind storm. Trees were down all over the place, but we didn't think much of it until we looked out the back door. Our back porch has a privacy fence on the right hand side and it was in pieces. We went out to pick it up and while we were out there trees were snapping and falling down like little twigs. It was pretty crazy to watch. Lucky for me, my hubby knew how to fix it, and not only fix it but make it more secure. The right post always swayed and squeaked really bad in the wind. It scared me to death the first while after we moved in until we figured out what was making that awful noise.

He had some pretty cute assistants that loved being outside all day.
He continued the right post all the way into the ceiling instead of stopping at fence post height. It doesn't squeak anymore. Hooray!
All put back together and looking pretty good. Thanks for being so handy babe. Sorry it took you so long to basically build us a new fence from scratch, but it is so nice to have you be able to fix things.

your invited:

2011-04-14T22:00:00.003-06:00

To Zaralyn's sleepover birthday!! At least that is what she thinks :) Zaralyn has been making birthday party invitations to give to all of her new friends that she is going to make at preschool (that starts this fall). I think this girl likes birthdays just a little bit. Don't ask me where the sleepover part came from, because trust me there will be no sleepover with a bunch of 5 year olds. Not gonna happen.

I am blaming Grandpa Millett for the idea because the girls keep saying that he gave them sleeping bags to sleep in the last time we were at his house, and I can't remember if he did or not. Did you grandpa?

Along with planning her fifth birthday party, she is starting to plan all of her birthdays out. It goes something like this:

"Mom, guess what party I am going to have for my 5th birthday?"

"What's that?"

"A sleepover birthday!"

"That sounds pretty fun (insert sarcastic tone)"

"And guess what party I am having for my sixth birthday?"

"What's that?"

"An Enchanted birthday!" .....

This goes on and on, and so far we are having a seventh Anastasia birthday, and eighth baptism birthday, a ninth Barbie birthday, a tenth Snow White party, an eleventh Rapunzel party, a twelfth Belle birthday and she is even planning her 100th birthday party. She told Justin and I that we were invited to it, and I told her that I would probably be dead, or a miracle survivor at 120 years old. She wasn't too happy with me that I wouldn't come to her party. I told her that I would do my best to be there, lol.

I hope with all of this early party planning, that her 5th birthday party won't disappoint. I guess I have my work cut out for me. :) Love you Lynee!

neighborhood egg hunt

2011-04-10T18:16:00.005-06:00

Today our neighborhood had a picnic and easter egg hunt at the park. I was glad that Justin was off and that we were able to go. The weather even cooperated and was in the higher 50's! It felt great to be out doors. We have some really great neighbors, and it was great to get to know them better. They did a light lunch and everyone brought baked goods and snacks to share. After we ate, the kids got to go egg hunting. The girls were so excited!

I got them to pose for a quick picture once they were done. They collected a lot of eggs, and couldn't wait to see what was inside of them.

They went back to the table and got to open their eggs.

Inside the eggs were all sorts of toys. There wasn't any candy in them because some of the kids in the neighborhood have food allergies, and they didn't want to have to mess with who's allergic to what. The girls didn't mind at all though they were so excited to open every single egg!

We are so glad to have a good neighborhood with great neighbors. We are looking forward to more activites with our new neighbors. Today was a pretty fun day.

baby #3

2011-04-09T08:05:00.006-06:00

We're pregnant with our third little one and we couldn't be happier! (I would be happier if the nausea would go away, but that is besides the point). We are due October 28 which makes me about 11 weeks right now. We hadn't told the girls about being pregnant until last week when we went to our 10 week ultrasound. We told the girls in the car on the way to the appointment, and they were pretty funny because they didn't believe us. It made it really fun when we got there and started the ultrasound and there really was a baby in mommy's tummy. They girls eyes just lit up and they were so excited! They were saying all sorts of funny things, but Zaralyn hit the spot with this one right in the middle of the ultrasound:

Zaralyn: "AAHHHH Mom, I know what we can name the baby! (in a loud excited voice) Me: "What's that?"

Zaralyn: "Sparkles! That's a good name Mom!"

We all got a good laugh out of that. The girls have since been calling the baby, "Baby Sparkles". I have a feeling that there might be some disappointment in their future. I keep asking them, "what if it is a boy, what will we name it then?" And they are pretty stumped on a boy name, so lets hope its a boy, and Dad and Mom can pick the name, lol.

The rest of the ultrasound went really well. The heart looked great and was beating at 166. The baby was measuring right where it should be at 10 weeks. I always love going to an ultrasound and getting to peek in on the baby and get reassurance that everything is going well. The tech was great with showing the girls and even printed them out their own ultrasound pics of the baby, which the girls loved! We are excited to add #3 to our family this fall. P.S. Want to know a funny fact about this baby? It will be my parents 5th grandchild to be born this year! Right now all four of my sisters and myself are all pregnant together. The babies are due two in April, two in September, and ours in October. Most likely all of us girls will never all be pregnant together again. Pretty crazy huh!?!

lots of news

2011-04-04T19:49:00.003-06:00

So lately there has been lots of things going on in our lives that haven't quite made it onto this blog. I am somewhat protected about what I put on here because once you put it out there, you no longer have control of the information, and sometimes that can be a bad thing. Not that any of you peeps reading this would ever do anything with it, but you know what I mean. Anyways, where to start? Probably last Christmas. I know that seems like it was quite a while ago. Over Christmas we were blessed enough to have my parents, brother, and sister's family over for the holidays. We were discussing certain health issues, and I mentioned that the nodule on my thyroid (that I had checked out in 2008) was getting bigger. This sort of sent off a frenzy of "You had better get that checked out!" So I did. In January, I made an apt with a primary physician and discussed the thyroid nodule. Of course there was nothing that the doc could do without further testing, so I was sent for blood work, an ultrasound, sent to an endocrinologist, back to my regular doc several times, and then finally a biopsy of the nodule. It was a LOT of tests! I found out that I really don't like going to the doctor that much. Not fun. Through out most of this time from January until now, the suspicion was that it was thyroid cancer. All of my thyroid levels come back normal. The ultrasound showed that I have not one, but two very large nodules and then several very small nodules as well. The two large nodules were biopsied and good news, it came back benign! What a relief it was to know that it doesn't look like it is cancer. Whew! I went back to my regular doc and she said, that even though it is great that it isn't cancer, that just means that we get to start over. We are now back to square one, and don't really know why they are there. So what now? Probably more testing, but really the easiest solution is to have surgery and have the nodules and probably most or all of my thyroid removed, but that is of course easier said than done. Plus, if they take all of my thyroid, then I will have to be on thyroid meds for the rest of my life. Not fun either. Long story short, it has been a long medical journey from January until March, but I am feeling a lot better about the situation, and finally feel okay enough about all of it, to share it. I still don't know much of anything, but it doesn't seem as serious now. Boring post, huh?

Hello Pittsburgh!

2011-03-26T21:16:00.004-06:00

Justin needed to go down to Pittsburgh for work, so the girls and I decided to tag along with him. It was a pretty crazy short trip and a lot of driving, but still fun to go and see the city. We can now say that we have been to Pittsburgh. :) It was a six hour drive each way and we were only gone about 30 hours total. See, crazy!! We drove down Thursday night, stayed over, and then drove back Friday afternoon. Anywho, since it was such a short trip, I didn't even think to take a camera. Seriously, me, and no camera! Luckily my phone takes pretty decent pics, so here you go. Downtown Pittsburgh:

There are lots of bridges through out the city. I suppose that is why it is called "the city of bridges".

We stopped at the Heinz Stadium where the Steelers play. We are not really Steelers (or any sports teams) fans, but it was still cool to stop and see where it all happens.

The girls were there too, but I didn't bug them for pics, so they don't have proof that they were there, but they were. (obviously! lol)

Just down from the stadium there is a river trail and a really nice view of the city, so we walked down there to get a better look. It was pretty chilly though, so we didn't walk too long.

And thats pretty much it. We went to the "Strip Market" that is down town. It was filled with small businesses and street vendors. There was this really cool shop that I really wanted to go into. It was all dried flowers and wreaths and what not. It all looked sooooo pretty, but we drove past twice and there was nooooo parking unless we wanted to pay$10 or more for a questionable lot, so we decided not to stop. It was fun to get a little mini sight seeing trip in, but the drive back was pretty long, so it feels good to be home.

p.s. not too bad of pics for my phone, huh :)

what can you get for free these days?

2011-03-22T20:05:00.002-06:00

a perfectly good television!! Were we looking for a new tv? Why yes we were. A few weeks ago Brylee took a partially inflated helium balloon and rubbed it on the tv screen I heard a "POP" and the tv went out. I couldn't believe that it had broken. Sound gone, no picture, nothing. So I turned it off and we went about our day. Later that night I turned it back on, and the picture was back on. But the sound was still out. I was hopefull that the tv was going to magically heal its self and the sound would return with the picture, but it did not. Justin and I looked into new tv's but basically any tv that wasn't teeny tiny was going to run in the ball park of $200-$300 (or more), and that isn't something we want spend money on right now, so we were just going without (it is just the tv in our bedroom after all). Justin was looking for tv's on craigslist, but either the people lived far away, the tv was too big to fit in the armoire, or someone else had already bought it. Even those tv's were still $30 or more. Then today just about three blocks away from our house there was a tv sitting out with the trash, I wouldn't have thought too much about it but the remote was duck taped to the top of it. A little too weird. So I made Justin go back and knock on the door to ask them if it worked and if we could take it if it did, and what do you know, they said it worked. We loaded it up and took it home. For FREE! We plugged it in, turned it on, and it is like the whole thing never happened :) Gotta love free!!

bob and snip

2011-03-22T19:24:00.004-06:00

Last Saturday, the girls had hair cuts. I had the same lady that does my hair give them a cut. I really like her for my hair, and she did a great job with the girls hair. I was pretty impressed that it was only $16 for both girls hair cuts! Zaralyn wanted to go first,but she was nervous about getting her hair cut. She wants long hair "just like mommy's" so I had to convince her that we would just barely snip the ends to cut off split ends. Her hair hasn't been trimmed in a long time, so it was really needing it.

Lynee did great and was happy with how her hair looked. Success!
Brylee was a little bit more wiggly, but she was so excited to ride in the airplane. Isn't it a cute little hair cutting seat for kids?
I asked Bry if she cared if it was cut shorter into a bob, and she surprisingly said yes. I was surprised due to all of the "Rapunzelness" lately, but since she was okay with it, I was excited to give it a try.

The front was a lot shorter than the back, so the bob pretty much just evened everything up.

The Afters:

Lynee's is pretty much the same, but isn't Bry's bob so stinkin cute!! I think it is the first time we have actually had a hair style besides "I have hair now and I am trying to grow it out." So cute Bry, thanks for being a good sport for Mom, I love your cute cut!!

Its becoming a tradition

2011-03-19T12:43:00.005-06:00

St. Patty's Day breakfast of green German Pancakes and home made Maple Syrup! Yumm! They are so good! I also stepped it up a notch this year (although I wish I was cool like this mom, but maybe next year) and made home made hot chocolate which was also really yummy. We also had some sausage, but I didn't home make that. I just cooked it. :)
We had to run some errands, so we went and did those, and on the way home, I said to Justin "it is just too nice outside to go home and be inside." He agreed, and we ended up at the park which the girls loved.

Sorta funny though, seems like this exact same day happened a few years ago... I guess we are starting a tradition without even trying. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

lynee's surgery

2011-03-16T15:54:00.002-06:00

Today Zaralyn had her dental surgery. She had quite a bit of dental work to get done, and the dentist recommended doing it in a surgery situation instead of a lot of office visits. Zaralyn was such a trooper this morning. Even though we had to be there at 6am! :) When they were ready for her the anesthesiologist took her by the hand and walked her into the OR. It was hard to let her leave, but she was so brave!!
The surgery took about 3 hours including the go to sleep/wake up time so all together it took around 5 hours total. They said that she was so good for them going to sleep. She climbed up onto the table all by herself and let them put the mask and monitors on her without any problems. They said that she was one of the best kids they had do that in months. That comforted me as a mom because I was so worried that she would be scared once she left us. When they took us back to her in recovery she was crying. I picked her up and she wrapped her little arms around me so tight.While I was holding her my heart was just melting for her. I am so grateful for my sweet little lynee. I know that she is getting so big, but holding her rocking in that rocking chair, she just felt like my sweet little baby girl again. I love her so much! It broke my heart to see her in pain, but she quickly fell back asleep and then gradually woke back up while Justin and I waited there for the hour in recovery.

She has been doing really well since we got home. She doesn't seem to be in any pain and once all of the anesthesia wore off I could tell that she was doing pretty good. She is taking a nap this afternoon. I am so glad that this big to-do is checked off our list and that it went better than expected. I didn't get any sleep last night because once my head hit the pillow, my mind went into worried mom mode, so now that the surgery is over and everything went well, I am hoping to get some better sleep tonight. Great job Lynee, you did so good! Dad and Mom are so proud of you and we love you!!

St. Patrick's Day Parade

2011-03-13T16:50:00.004-06:00

So I have been catching a little slack for my non-existent posting. What? Not me...ooookay so I admit that I haven't blogged much lately. Haven't really felt like I have had too much blog worthy news I want to blog about. So other than Justin being off this last week we have just been hanging out around the house. We did pretend it was summer this last Friday and went to the opening night of the drive in. We saw "Mars needs Moms" and "I am Number Four" although the girls watched Robin Hood on the car dvd player for the second movie. They were happy, we were happy, so other than watching the second movie through the windshield wipers and the snow, it was a good family night out. :)

On Saturday we went to Scranton's St.Patrick's Day Parade. We sort of felt out of place because we weren't wearing enough green. It seemed like everyone was all decked out in green. The mom's at Gymnastics said it is the third largest St. Patrick's Day Parade in the U.S. We heard it was about 3hrs and 15 minutes long, but we only watched a little under 2 hours of it, due to fighting traffic to get there and then left early due to the wind and rain. Overall though we had a lot of fun there. The girls really liked it.

There were lots of baton twirlers and bands

The girls wanted some cotton candy that people were selling. It was only $1, so we got them some.

Watching the parade with my girls :)
The girls liked this float. It was all decked out and had bubbles coming out the top.

Brylee REALLY enjoyed her cotton candy.

I kept wiping it off Zaralyn's nose so hers doesn't look as bad as Brylee's, but she was pretty messy and sticky too.

It was a pretty fun day, and the weather was pretty good until right at the end. It got windy and rainy, so we left (it was a good walk back to the car) but then it cleared right back up and was nice again. We spent the rest of the day letting the girls play in the yard and Justin cleaned up some more leaves and cut down some bushes that needed it. It was a good way to get out and enjoy the little bit of sun we had.

This is a video of one of the Keltic Bands. Lynee kept snickering that all of the boys were wearing skirts. It was pretty cute. We explained to her that they were supposed to be wearing them, but everytime another one would come by she would snicker again. It was hard not to giggle at her ourselves. :)

Happy 3rd Birthday Rapunzel! (aka Brylee)

2011-03-02T20:07:00.004-07:00

It was a lot of fun to be in Vernal for Brylee's third birthday! We invited all of her cousins to go to the Uintah Rec Center for a little party. I kept it pretty simple since we were out of town and there wasn't a lot of time for decorations and what not, but I think it turned out pretty cute. This is the birthday banner that I conned everyone into helping me with :) Brittney drew it for me while I was in Grand Junction, and then my mom and sister Jennie helped me paint it. Turned out pretty good, don't you think? Thanks for all the help ladies!! I got Bry some balloons with Rapunzel on the mylar one, and other than table clothes and a little bit of table scatter, the rest of the decorations were already there. Easy Peasy :)
Here is Brylee with her cute cake. I was pretty surprised that we pulled a cake off so fast since I didn't even get to Vernal until Saturday afternoon. (Through a blizzard over Douglass I might add. Glad we made it there at all)

Thanks so much for helping me with the cake Ashley, it turned out great!

Since I was pretty busy with actually throwing the party, I turned my camera over to this guy-on the right. The handsome return missionary, lol. All of the subsequent pictures are from him. Thanks Garrett!!

We had pizza and bread sticks and then Bry's favorite foods. Fruit! Strawberries, Grapes, Pineapple and Bananas. Good choice Bry, it was yummy!!

The party room was pretty packed, but somehow we all fit. All 36ish of us :)

Brylee had fun opening her gifts. It was pretty much a whirlwind of tissue and wrapping paper flying, but she loved it. Thank you for being so sweet and generous everyone.

I asked Grandpa to help with the unwrapping. I usually make Justin do this, but he was working so thanks for helping Grandpa.

The girls were oohhing and ahhhing over all of the "Tangled" gifts

And I am pretty sure that I heard a gasp by all the little girls under the age of 8 when Bry opened this one from Mom and Dad. They have sure been a favorite ever since too.

Then it was cake time

I was telling Bry to make a wish. I think she wished for more Rapunzel dolls. lol, just kidding :)

The party blew by pretty fast. We had to fit all of that into one hour. Whew! That was fast, but it wasn't over yet because the best part, the swimming was still to come. All of the kids kept asking, "can we go swimming yet?" So everyone was excited to get in the water.

Bry was one crazy girl in the water. Seriously this was the best picture that I got of her. She didn't hold still. She wasn't afraid at all. She didn't care if anyone (like me or any other life saving adult) was by her. She just ran around playing on all of the equipment and slides and splashing water in her face (yes her face! Seriously, she was crazy!) She loved it, and was the last one out of the water when it was time to go. I am so glad that you had a fun birthday Brylee! Mommy and Daddy love you so much!! Happy 3rd Birthday Sweetheart

sledding

2011-02-27T22:30:00.002-07:00

Grandpa wanted to take the kids sledding while we were in Vernal. I had brought the girls snow boots and gloves, so we were set and excited to go. Brylee fell asleep on the way over, and that girls needs her sleep, so she slept in the car. Zaralyn was a little apprehensive about going, so I took her down twice. She still wasn't too sure about it, so Grandpa said that he would take her. She went down on this run with Grandpa.

and she didn't like it much. Then she showed some interest in a tube, so I put her on it and sent her down, and it was all over. Tears streaming down her face, and she was done.So since my kids weren't having fun, I took some cute pictures of my niece Leah with Grandma.

She is so stinkin cute!

Lynee's mood did get a little better, but she still wasn't going sledding again. Thanks Grandpa and Grandma for the fun outing. Even if my girls didn't really get to have too much fun.

It was nice to just be outdoors.

Dustin's Headstone

2011-02-27T22:24:00.002-07:00

While I was in Vernal, we went out to Dustin's grave to see it and pay him a visit. I have seen it before, but it looked different to me in the snow. It was nice to go there and remember him, and visit him, and Garrett even found some music on my ipod that would have been Dustin approved. My mom didn't think it was very fitting for the Sabbath. I told her we were letting Dustin jam out for a minute before we left. We all got a good laugh out of that, and it was a nice reminder of Dustin. Miss you brother.

Garrett's Homecoming

2011-02-27T22:04:00.002-07:00

What a good looking missionary he is!
These pics were taken after his talk in Sacrament meeting. He did such a good job, and it was great to hear about more of his experiences while on his mission and the people that he taught. He even obliged me and bore his testimony in Spanish. Pretty cool little bro, pretty cool :)
Garrett and Allisha
Garrett and the ~~old~~ folks, Just kidding mom and dad :) I think I just lost some brownie points...oops
Kayla and Jordan

And then you have these two... Crazy little brothers.

They were "not touching" hugging. What ever that is.

Garrett, you were such an awesome Missionary. I am so glad that you are safe and sound back here in the states, and that you have a vanilla hook up for us :) I love you and you are an amazing example to all of us. And for the last time that I can say this... Welcome Home Elder Millett!!

Happy 3rd Birthday Brylee!!

2011-02-22T16:36:00.003-07:00

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl! You are definitely a girl on the go and so excited to be three!! Mommy and Daddy love you so much! Hope you have a special birthday sweetheart,
We love you!
Love,
Daddy, Mommy and Zaralyn

Elder G's HOME!!

2011-02-18T22:18:00.005-07:00

Has it really been two years already? I guess so because on Tuesday Garrett finished his LDS mission in Mexico and flew into the SLC airport and we got to be there to welcome him home!! Justin, the girls and I flew in around midnight the night before to be at the airport to welcome Garrett home. I am so glad we came :) Here is the group waiting for him to arrive...

And here he comes!! We were all cheering and applauding :) It was really fun to be there.

It was happy reunions all around

My sweet Brylee squeezed him so tight. It was really cute!

He is so tan! Jealous!!

This last picture just makes me smile. Someone mentioned for him to run through his sign, and although he wasn't too super excited to do it, he was a good sport and ran through it anyways. It ripped from Jordan's hand, but it was still really fun. Thanks for playing along Garrett! We are so excited that you are home. Love you little bro!

Happy Love Day to my little ladies!!

2011-02-13T22:58:00.001-07:00

You've got mail, sweethearts!! Love Daddy and Mommy

chandelier and girly room part one and a half

2011-02-13T18:47:00.006-07:00

I was looking at a blog that was talking about their new chandelier purchase, and they had a link to the site that they got it from. So I clicked on it and look what I found: Oh my goodness!! Wouldn't this be so perfect for the girls room? I was in decorating heaven. At least for a few seconds until I scrolled down a little bit more and saw the price... $499.00!!! Seriously? Ugh! Why does everything have to be so expensive? I am bummed. Obviously out of the question, but a girl can dream right?

...Okay, lets get back to reality now, I have a few more pictures of the girls room. I tried to take a few in the day light so that you could see things a little better. This is the view of their room from the hallway. The bed is Brylee's

and on the opposite side of the room is Zaralyn's bed.

This is the hardware for the drapes. I think they are fun, and the girls LOVE them!
I feel like you couldn't really see the drapes in the post before. They looked like they just blended into the wall, but trust me, they are much cuter in person. I hope this picture does them a little bit more justice.

and one final picture so that you can sort of see how the room fits together. There is a pretty cute little girl (or two) in there, that just wanted her picture taken. They have really been enjoying their room. Makes all the taping worth it :) Even if it doesn't have a $500 chandelier.

Don't mind the bed hair and pajamas, it was first thing in the morning after all :)

girly room make over - part one

2011-02-08T21:19:00.008-07:00

I know, I know, it has been a while since I have posted. Okay, not really that long, but a while for me. But in my defense, my husband has been off work, and we have been soaking up all of the daddy/hubby time up that we can, because all too soon he will be back at work and almost non existent in our world. [sigh] he is always off at the wrong time :(

Anyways, I have been up to a little sumthin sumthin. Its not done yet, but I want to share a little sneak peak with you so that you can see all my hard work that I have been working on instead of blogging. So here it goes... The girls room before:

Almost not worth posting. Picture four white walls, two twin beds, and you have your before.

and then add the shutters installed in December. (Thanks again Dad, I still LOVE them!) This dresser is going to eventually get replaced. It matches our crib, so I don't want to paint it. I want to get white beds and a white dresser for them, but finding the right ones, for the right price, seems to be harder that you would think.
So the idea was that I wanted to paint vertical stripes in soft muted tones of purple. The girls have been asking for a purple room for a while now. It has been their favorite color, so I am trying to oblige and just go with it. I painted the darker color purple first. It was pretty dark, but I had to keep reminding myself that this was just going to show a little bit. This next picture was after I spent around 2 1/2 hours taping the walls for the stripes.

Thats a whole lot of tape. I felt like I may never get done. I wanted Justin to help, but he wanted to play video games. Pshhh, lame! lol

Then I painted the lighter purple and peeled the tape off. I don't think I have ever been more excited in my life to peel off some painters tape. What do you think? (I took these pics at night, so the color looks pretty dark, but it isn't dark in person. Come see it for yourselves :) anytime!)The girls are in heaven with their girly purple room. I also moved the dresser around so now one bed is where the dresser used to be, and one is on this wall in between the closets and the dresser.

I got the curtains at the pottery barn outlet months ago, and you can't see the hardware, but they are glass balls. They girls think that they are so sparkly.

I found these berry garlands a while ago as well. They are fun over their closets, and I have one more that I think I will make a wreath or something else with.

I also changed out their closet door handles to these glass knobs. They are way better than the boring white ones that where their before. We already had this lamp, but it doesn't go with their room at all now.

So I painted it to match too.

I still have to figure out what to do with the shade. If you have any super cute ideas, send them my way. I have a few ideas, but haven't found the right materials for it yet.

So thats pretty much it so far. I still need to do bedding and stuff for their walls, but it is slowly getting there. Zaralyn told me that she loved it, but wanted to let me know that her favorite colors are now yellow and green. I told her that was really too bad because I am not re-painting anytime soon. She reassured me that she still loved her room. Good thing Lynee, good thing. :)

texts to daddy

2011-01-29T19:43:00.003-07:00

Lynee has been really into taking pictures lately. Only because she wants to text them to her daddy at work. So I have been getting all sorts of "mommy, take my picture" with this kind of face attached: Then we send it to her daddy and she waits for his reply. She always asks me, "did he like it?" Which of course he does and he sends her back messages. It is pretty cute, but I am starting to worry that I am going to run out of memory on my phone, lol.

Thank you sweethearts for making both Mommy and Daddy smile. We sure love you cute things!

Docter Apointment

2011-01-20T20:10:00.002-07:00

Today the girls had doctor appointments at their new pediatrician. This was one of the things on my list that made me apprehensive about moving. We loved our pediatrician in Colorado, and we were sad to leave her. Having to find a new doctor was scary to me. How do you find a good doctor, one that you like, is good with your kids and that gets you as a parent... I could go on and on.
The girls were all excited about their appointments though, and that helped. When we got there, they had the girls undress to their undies, and put on hospital gowns (dresses as the girls called them). The gowns were that papery stuff and had ties that I just tied around their waist. The girls LOVED them! They wanted me to take their picture so that I could show daddy. I was up for that. :) (Its from my phone, so sorry if it isn't the best quality)

Aren't they cute? The were litterly bouncing all over the room in excitement. Then the doctor came in, and [insert big sigh of relief here] she was great!! Great with the kids, great with talking to me and believed me when I talked with her about things. I was pretty relieved. The girls were too until she left and that nurse returned with their shots. Yikes!! Bry is all up to date, so she just got her flu shot, but Lynee along with her flu shot needed to get her boosters of chicken pox and the measles, mumps, rubella shot for kindergarten (she will need one more set of boosters). Bry was so brave and got her shot first. She didn't even cry. Then Lynee, in tears before the nurse even started, got her three shots. Her last shot was covered with a soccer ball band-aide and that helped stop the tears. She asked me later, "how did they know that I love soccer?" It was pretty cute. We ended our appointment with our traditional after the shots ice cream trip, and then the world was good again :)

Their stats were as follows:

Zaralyn: was 40" tall and in the 35% for height She weighed 33 lbs and that put her in the 25% for weight. Way to go Lynee. You have come a long ways from below the charts and in the negative percentiles :)

Brylee: was 36" tall and in the 35% for height She weighed 32 lbs and that put her in the 50% for weight. I was surprised that the girls are almost the exact same weight. I knew that Bry would catch Lynee at some point, I guess we're there. Way to go Bry, you are growing perfectly!!

thats what I thought

2011-01-20T19:45:00.003-07:00

It was WAY too quiet around here. Thats when I go look for Brylee. It didn't take long, until I found her...

...

on the kitchen floor

...

eating ice cream

...

with a spoon

...

and THE CARTON!!

What a little stinker!!

But it was too cute to be mad so I took a few pictures and let her have some more ice cream. This time in a bowl though. :)