Our Memorial Day

Once again I dont have many pictures of our Memorial Day Festivities, I just forget to get the camera out! We shared a fabulous meal with my family (sans Mary) at our house. Originally it was supposed to be at my parent's house, but we figured it would be much easier to do it here, and I am SO glad we did.

We set up the water slide for the first time this weekend, and the girls have been playing in it EVERY day! Kaylee, the daredevil, slides/jumps/flips down the slides, Ainslee, the reserved one, plays contently in the wading pool with 2 cups. It is so much fun watching them play and interact with each other.

Back to Memorial Day.....we had a HUGE meal, followed by the girls' first experience with S'mores. That is the reason I remembered to get the camera out!

Daddy helps Ainslee roast her first marshmallow

notice our redneck fire

daddy helps Kaylee roast her first marshmallow, and blow out the flame

Ainslee eats her first bite of S'more......she loved it, OBVIOUSLY!

Kaylee takes her first bite, and loved it too!

Mommy and Amma roast their mallows

and daddy has to come join in the fun, roasting one for himself

Abba and Johnny couldnt resist, notice Kaylee helping out Abba

The plate of ingredients was gone in NO time!

Ainslee taking a bite from anyone willing to share

Amma and mommy stuff their faces!

And while no one was looking Ainslee got BACK into the water with her clothes on! Kaylee was not far behind her!

We had a fantastic weekend!

Happy Memorial Day to everyone!

PS: we have better photos and videos of the girls on the slide/pool but most of them contain nudity so I am unable to post them. Does anyone else have trouble keeping clothes on their children (Bethany dont answer that!)? Does anyone else's children ask to be naked ALL the time?

Similarities/Differences

I have to start by saying that so far this time around things have been MUCH different around here! While i have experienced my fair share of nausea (some more intense than others, I was able to fight it back (withOUT meds*) until just the other day. Now I wont give you any details or anything! This came as a surprise to me as the sickness started MUCH earlier and obviously way more frequently than ONE time with my other 2 pregnancies. side note: i can still remember getting sick in the kitchen sink when I was pregnant with Ainslee, because I just couldnt make it to the bathroom in time. And Kaylee came running over to me and rubbed my back/butt (it was all she could reach) and hugged my leg while I got sick. Thankfully this time I have not needed my children to comfort me as I get sick.

The things that ARE the same:
-the food aversions, I cant eat meat! as well as other random things. I can barely even cut my children meat up for them
-smell sensitivity
-weird cravings (mostly for poisonous glutenous foods)
-SEVERE TIREDNESS, I have been napping almost every day!
-crankiness, wait, i am cranky even when I'm NOT pregnant
-serious sleep issues, waking up and not being able to go back to sleep for HOURS in the middle of the night!

I have not had trouble brushing my teeth yet, but im sure that will come soon. I sort of ruled out the vomit thing thinking I was going to be out of the woods pretty much the day it happened, so i decided I shouldnt rule anything out. Who knows, I could be sick my entire 3rd trimester (LORD please do NOT do that to me!)

I finally added a pregnancy widget to my sidebar so I can see how big the baby is getting and how many days I have left. I was really looking for a better widget but failed to find one that I liked so I stuck with Ole faithful. I really wanted one that gave sort of a daily or weekly update on the growth of the baby. Like "this week your baby's _____ is developing" etc. I was SHOCKED to see that I have only 204 days left! I said before I am totally trying to savor every last bit of this pregnancy because who knows this could be the last!

So far I have only lost 4 lbs from week 7 to week 9. I go in tomorrow for another appt/ultrasound. This will be the first time (this pregnancy) Marcus has been able to come with me and I decided to also bring the girls so they could "see" the baby on the screen too! Kaylee is SUPER excited and cant wait! Im not quite sure if she will be happy with the experience or disappointed because she wont actually get to hold the baby. I have tried to explain to her that she will get to watch him/her on a little TV, and I can see her brain trying to figure out what I am trying to explain. It is definitely going to be interesting!

Speaking of Kaylee, she knows this baby is a boy. She refers to him as a boy/him/he/brother every time she talks about the baby. i have to say that she has been pretty right with her baby predictions lately! I just hope she wont be disappointed if it happens to be another sister!

that's about all the news I have as far as this pregnancy goes


*my previous pregnancies I have had to take a concoction of 3 different drugs to make me stop vomiting. Docs were concerned when I lost 10 lbs in like 8 days.

Why I've Been Away

Ive been doing a lot of....

fighting back nausea

answering questions

taking naps

chasing 2 little girls

being disgusted by the thought/look/smell of food

visiting with old friends

taking middle of the night trips to the bathroom

getting ready for summer

visiting the doctor

and here's why

I am 10 weeks pregnant!

I still have trouble believing it sometimes, but after 8 months of failure, I am finally PREGNANT!!!

We will be getting a nice little Christmas surprise this year. I am due December 20th, and once again we are keeping the sex of the baby a surprise until the birth.

Both of the big sisters are thrilled! Kaylee obviously has more of an understanding of what is going on, but is having trouble waiting. She asks multiple times a day "Is the baby coming out today?" "Is the baby growing?" "Is your belly getting bigger?" etc. Ainslee will tell you where the baby is when asked and even randomly kiss my belly, but she obviously has NO concept of time so the wait has been much easier for her thus far.

And here is how we made the announcement to our families

We found out the week before Easter that we were expecting, so after waiting on the initial blood work we decided to tell the family really really early. I decided to create this little note and put them in a plastic egg (along with a scratch card) and put them on every ones plate at dinner. I have to say some thought actually did go into the design of the announcement. I wanted it to be Easter themed, I wanted it to be sort of obvious what the purpose was, but I didn't want it to be too obvious. Get what I'm saying? So I made the "Happy Easter" in white smaller font, and then the date in the middle of the page in larger BOLD font. But after all the careful thought and planning, and revealing the egg, of all the family members, my sister was the only one to figure it out! It was definitely fun watching the looks on every ones faces as they finally figured it out. It was funny watching most of the people completely dismiss the "announcement" and go straight for the scratch card. It was even funnier that Marcus and I were the ONLY ones who won on any of the scratch cards. We will definitely be needing that money.....hahahaha!

So stay tuned for all the pregnancy updates

Boston

We recently made a trip up to Boston to visit our NEW, one and only niece. It was a really last minute trip that we put together in about 10 days. We got a crazy good deal on the tickets, so we just decided to jump on it. Not only did we get a little "get-away" vacation to meet our new niece, oh and hang out with her parents too, but who cares about the parents once the babies are born? HAHAHA jk Crista and Harry we enjoyed hanging out with you too! So we got our get-away, but we also escaped all the crazy storms and rain that ravaged the south. It was quite scary watching/reading all the news footage from thousands of miles away.


We forgot to bring our camera on this trip so all we were able to capture were some pics on our phones. Here's what I got.....

Boston State House

dates back to 1713, and in 1776 the Declaration of Independence was read from its balcony for the first time in Massachusetts

One night Crista and Harry treated us to dinner at the Boston College club. A private club on the 36th floor. Here is our view from our table, Boston really is such a cool city!

Ans here is Boston at night from dinner

Ainslee at the Children's Museum

Girls sitting in tiny chairs at the museum

Kaylee LOVED the "tools" exhibit. She got to use many different types of tools

Just hanging out in a little house

Kaylee 44" tall

Ainslee 34" tall

The girls preparing for a meal in a tent in the "Torn from Home" refugee exhibit

The girls even shared what little meal they had with their daddy.......how sweet

Kaylee using the latrine at the refugee camp

Ainslee was quite good at "popping a squat"

Kaylee playing the steel drums

Ainslee crawling through the tunnel in the construction zone

Kaylee driving the bobcat

Ainslee driving the bobcat

Here Kaylee is driving a REALLY old fire truck at the Fire Museum

Both girls riding in the fire truck, I think Ainslee is telling Kaylee which way to go

Hanging out in the public garden

riding the carousel with Auntie Crista

We ate at PF Changs one night and they gave the girls Wikki Stix, we all had fun playing with them, here are the glasses I made the girls

The girls were AWESOME on this trip! They slept really well, they ate good, they behaved (as much as you can expect a 2 and 4 year old to), they were as sweet as they could be to their new niece, and they did great on the flights (even with the delays). Here is Ainslee chillin' on one of the flights. It is getting easier and easier to travel with them as they get older. And they both love travelling!

Boston: we had another great visit, but man are we glad to be home! Hope to see you all again soon!

Easter

Our Easter was quite fantastic! We had 2 days worth of fun and excitement, as well as all the days leading up to it. We had many "practice hunts" in our backyard and inside our house. Saturday we spent Easter with my family at my parents house. The picture below is the girls during their egg hunt their. You can really tell the difference in the girls in this picture. Kaylee excited to conquer the world and explore anything, Ainslee calm, reserved, and slightly nervous with new experiences. She sits back and watches and waits until she is comfortable......even if it means missing out on some of the eggs.

Once she got comfortable she joined in on the fun, and spotted some of the ones that were hidden in the more discrete locations


Kaylee wondering what the heck I am doing taking pictures

The girls spotted an airplane, which was obviously much more interesting than finding eggs

Easter Sunday was spent at Marcus' moms house. But before we went there we stopped by my parents for a few photos. Here are the girls with their Abba. They love and adore him, mostly because he feeds them ALL the time!

This picture was perfect in my eyes. Amma and Kaylee were looking at the camera, prepare for the upcoming pictures, Ainslee with her mouth wide open shocked at whatever my sister is doing behind me to make them look and smile, and my dad completely NOT paying attention to the camera. I swear I wonder sometimes who is more difficult, my dad or the girls.

Even though this one is dark it is the best shot of all 4 of them looking at the camera and smiling

Our little family

My crazy girls

I didn't get many pictures at my MIL's house but here are a few. Kaylee going through her Easter basket to see what goodies were in there.

Ainslee deciding which piece of candy she was going to eat

All in all we had a FANTASTIC weekend!

Oh man I just realize I should post the picture of them with the Easter bunny; however, it is at home, so it will just have to wait for another post.

Natural Easter Eggs

This was my first year (as a mom) to dye Easter eggs. I know i know I'm a horrible, un-fun mom! Anyways so when I decided to finally make the plunge and organize this project with the girls I decided why not dye the eggs naturally. Then I thought about hard boiled eggs and how much care is required for them, and you don't ever really get to show them off, cause they are in the fridge and then they get eaten. SOOO I decided to blow my eggs and then dye them using natural (aka food) items found in almost any house. I researched a little about what is best to use and I came up with 6 colors. Here is the end product.....

This is actually the green egg. It really DOES look green in person, but after 30 shots of the same egg, I decided to stop trying to capture the true color. I dyed the green ones using a can of spinach. Oh and I just love the natural markings the spinach put on the egg, darker in some spots, lighter in others. It is just a beautiful color!

This one is actually my "red" one. Well it was supposed to be! It was red for the first couple of days and then it magically turned into this dull grayish brownish color. I used beets for this one, and was expecting a bright red, but after leaving it soak for 12 hours I was left with a pale pink that eventually faded into the color you see below. Next time I wont do canned beets, I will get some fresh one, cause I know they would work much better.

This is the brown one, and looks JUST like the pic in real life. I let this particular egg soak longer than the other, so it has a richer, darker color. I think it is beautiful! Oh and I used very VERY strongly brewed coffee for this one.

My most favorite of all......the blue egg! Obviously blueberries were used to create this awesome looking egg. I just love the naturalness of the color, it definitely stands out amongst the others (and does look a bit better in real life).

This one was another "flop". It was supposed to be my red/orange or burnt orange egg, but it didn't quite turn out that way. It looks like a lighter version of the brown (from the coffee). I used chili power with this one, and have to say that I would like to try this one again, and maybe add more or something to try and get a more red/orange color to come out. But I do love the markings it has on it.

Last but not least is the yellow egg. I really have to say I do love this one too. And it was by far the quickest to dye. The turmeric just soaked right in and made the egg look a wonderful shade of yellow.

Steps for dyeing eggs naturally (my way):

• the afternoon before I let my eggs sit out on the counter to warm up


• that evening I poked a small hole in one end of each egg and a little bit larger hole in the other end


• through the larger hole I swished around the wooden skewer I was using to break up the yolk and the membrane holding the egg to the shell.


• I carefully blew out each egg


• I then cleaned out each egg with a mixture of soapy water and vinegar


• I let the eggs drip dry over night, making sure as much of the moisture as possible was out


• I prepared my mixes (spinach, beets, turmeric, blueberries, chili powder, and coffee)


• each of the dying agents went into a pot with water and a splash of vinegar, to help the color adhere to the egg


• I boiled the ingredients


• I placed 2 eggs in each pot and let the eggs soak


• Then once cooled I transferred each into a plastic baggy (i know NOT very "natural" but since I blew my eggs out they were so light that they were floating on the surface and not getting the full effect of the dying process)


• I let some soak for a couple of hours and others for up to 12 hours


• after removing them I attempted to let them dry, again, but that didn't work so well


• in the end I was left with some beautifully naturally dyed eggs, and a bunch of things to add to my compost bin! Because everything I used was able to go directly in, so not much waste either

This project actually cost less than going to the store and buying an egg dying kit with all those fake chemical colors (no offense to all you reading who used those kits). My most expensive investment was the $1.60 I paid for the darn eggs! The other ingredients either came from my house, my dads house, and i bought the canned spinach and beets for $1.30. So this whole project cost under 3 bucks. AWESOME!

I really enjoyed this project and found it to be very interesting, next year we will do it again, make a few changes, and learn a little more. I want to get the girls more and more involved in the process as they get older, and let them come up with ideas for food items to use as dyes.