Conversations with Ella and Emery: Part 3

Emery: "Come here, Sisters! I need you!"

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Emery: "And I can get panties! And I can go potty in the toilet. And I can be big girl. I can be Isabelle, just like her!"

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Curt: "I think it's night night time!"
Emery: "I can't go to sleep with my poop!"

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After getting dressed in new clothes, Ella ran to the living room where Emery and Isabelle were and yelled: "Sisters! Look at my outfit!"

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Curt: "Emery, you talk nice!"
Emery: "Nice. Nice. Nice."

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Ella: "Daddy! Daddy! Isabelle's going to be strong like me!"

Curt: "oh. Is she going to be strong like you someday?"

Ella: "Yeah."

Isabelle: "I am strong."

***

Me: "Isabelle, when's your birthday?"

Isa: "March!"

Me: "March 26th. Ella when's your birthday?"

Ella: "I Ella Boo."

Me: "Say December 28th."

Ella: "December 28th."

Me: "Emery, when's your birthday?"

Emery: "Pink!!"

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Ella: "Mom, I wanna paint my hair black?"

Me: "Paint it black?? Why?"

Ella: "I wanna paint my hair black like Ted the boy." (From The movie The Lorax)

Me: "Let's ask Daddy."

***

Ella: "Mom. I can't carry the washing machine. I'm not big and strong!" 

Me: "Uhhhhh...okay."

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Ella while helping Daddy cook: "Daddy, this is kinda fun, Dad!!"

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Emery: "Mom this is the mean squinkie."
Me: "Oh really?"
Emery: "Her needs to go kill something."

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Emery: "Pixie dust away!"

Ella: "Her no need pixie dust. Her got wings!"

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Isabelle: "Her highness?!"

Emery: "I am the highness."

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Me: "Who's your favorite princess, Emery?"

Emery: "Ummm...(pats index finger to cheek repeatedly)...Snow White!"

Me "Who's your favorite princess, Ella?"

Ella: "Simba!"

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While in the car driving, Hercules' "Go the Distance" came on the CD and Ella got really excited. 

Ella: "It's Sparkules!!!!"

After a really long pause of confusion...

Emery: "No it's not Farkules, it's Hercules!!"

***

Conversations with Isabelle: Part 12

Me: "Did you talk to Aubrey today in Primary class?"

Isabelle: Excitedly: "Yeah!"

Me: "Did you talk about princesses?"

Isabelle: "Uh...I don't think so."

***

Isabelle: "There was a Emery in class today!"

Me: "Really?!"

Isabelle: "Yeah. Not our Emery. A different Emery. This Emery wears panties."

Me: "Yeah, our Emery doesn't wear panties."

Isabelle: "No. She doesn't."

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Isabelle: "I don't want to go to bed! I love to be awake!"

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Ella: "Daddy is big and strong!"

Isa: "Yeah. Daddy is big."

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While taking a bubble bath:

Isabelle (whining): "Dad. Sometimes bubbles get in my bum and they won't go down!"

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Isa: "Shine your purple wings in the sun and you'll be a princess forever. And you'll be magic. Don't disappoint me. Complete this mission."

***

Isa: "Dad, what's his name?"

Curt: "Darth Vader."

Isa: "Dark Mater."

***

The Rest of the Christmas Projects

I'm going to wrap up all of our pre-Christmas Eve/pre-Christmas activities with this post. Other than the projects I've already blogged about, we did some others too. These one, there aren't any action shots though...just after pictures of the project once it was done. I didn't quite have it all together. :)

This was one of my favorite projects we did. I think he's pretty adorable. The girls were quite thrilled with getting their whole hands painted. :)

We also colored a lot of printable Frozen and Nativity pages. These are the ones we still have for me to take pictures of. :)

We also made these reindeer. Emery did not participate as she was in a super tired grouchy mood and just wanted to help Daddy make dinner. She was happy in the kitchen and everyone else was happy she was happy. Isabelle's is the one on the top. The hand sizes are pretty close...just like their feet size too. 

Christmas would be so weird for me without this Advent calendar. It's a pretty close replica of the same one I grew up with. My mom made it for us...oh, two years ago now. We aren't always the best at keeping up with the two different ones we have because of the upset girls who don't get to open a pocket...so we generally open 2-3 days at a time. It works. They don't quite get the concept anyways... This year we were lucky enough to add a miniature Tinker Bell ornament to our collection. My mom brought it from her mom's house. When we told Isabelle it came from Grammie Barbara, we asked her if she remembered Grammie Barbara (it's been two years since she visited) and Isabelle replied, "Oh yeah! She has a fairy garden!"

That sums up my blogging on our projects...except I have four more cut and ready to go for Christmas Eve with Levi...so there will in fact be more. The girls just love doing them! 

Live Nativity

On Sunday we went to a Catholic church's Live Nativity. They had it set up so that you walked through different scenes and listened to the Bible story as you went. We really enjoyed it...except it was super cold cause of the icy wind. We survived it though. :) They girls enjoyed it and loved petting the donkey, goat and camel that was there. Well, Emery didn't pet anything, but the other two loved it. Unfortunately my camera died, so there aren't very many pictures...but at least there are some. Yay for making it to a Live Nativity this year!!

Gingerbread Boys

One of the three projects we did on Saturday night was make some gingerbread boys. Unfortunately after the girls started painting their plates, I realized I didn't have enough brown construction paper to give the gingy boys arms and legs...much to Isabelle's dismay. "How is he going to run without legs?!" She answered herself by rolling the plate some and that was the solution. :)

Christmas Lights

On Saturday, we did a last little hurrah and did three Christmas projects off of our Bucket list in an effort to get them done before Christmas. We didn't quite make it through our whole list, but we did get most of it done (4 of 31 didn't get done!) and I'm quite proud I had enough patience and motivation to do so. The first one we did has actually been on our to do list for two Christmases now and I really wanted to cross it off. We did finger print Christmas lights. The girls enjoy anything that has to do with paint. They are pretty much guaranteed to love any project if there is paint involved. I'm always so glad when they are patient enough to take turns too.

Christmas Outfits

We took pictures of the girls in their Christmas outfits that my mom made them last Sunday. I needed pictures for our Christmas card. We tried to take pictures before church, but we never have enough time. Fortunately they were still cooperative after a good day at church. Of course sitting on the forbidden sled made them pretty happy too. :)

Making Candy

It's been a long tradition in my family to give some sort of candy or dessert away at Christmas time. I decided we would put together little plates with goodies on them. We made peanut butter ball/truffles, sugar cookies, pretzels with Rolos melted on them and M&Ms on them too and Rice Krispie treats. We took the girls out to go and deliver the goodies to six families.

Frozen

Last Saturday we took the girls to see Frozen. We had watched the trailers and music on YouTube about a hundred times each before going to see it. The girls were VERY excited. It was the first time we had taken Emery and Ella to the theater too. So, it was doubly exciting for them. They did so well too. With the exception of a fight over Daddy's lap for about 30 seconds somewhere in the middle and making sure Emery didn't fall asleep the whole time, it went really well. Isabelle proudly sang along with the "Let it Go" song. As soon as it was over though, the grumps came out. Emery was way tired so that's why she wasn't happy. She wanted to go to bed so bad. Isabelle was unhappy that we couldn't immediately watch it again. Ella was unhappy that it was over too...and she was the happiest of the three. 

All three of them loved the show and they often play Anna and Elsa. It's a darling show!

Candy Canes

We did some thumb print candy canes and the girls really enjoyed it. They don't have a ton of patience and this project requires each of them taking their turns as I paint their thumbs and they stamp them with my help. They do pretty well though. 

An Elf Project

For the most part, we do all our projects in the evening. Mostly because I need help wrangling all three girls, who rarely listen to directions. Plus then there is someone to take pictures. However, there are a few days that the project is simple enough to tackle by myself. I had the girls color these elves and then I cut them out and glued them together. For some reason, they are very attached to them. They play with them and name and rename them daily. :)

Clay and Cookie Cutters

I had the idea that we could use cookie cutters to cut out clay Christmas shapes to use as tags on either candy plates or gifts. So, I ordered the clay and cookie cutters off of Amazon and the girls and I went to town. The girls loved helping to push the cookie cutter down and seeing the clay become whatever shape the cookie cutter was. It was a fun project. They didn't love that it took forever for them to dry, but it's not as if it actually took forever...

Christmas Devotional

I wouldn't usually blog about this, but I had to record Emery and how much attention she seemed to pay during the devotional this year. Isabelle and Ella...not so much, but Emery did really well. :)

Santa's Lap

At our ward Christmas party, Santa and Mrs. Claus came to visit at the end. As a parent, this makes me thrilled! I don't really want to go to the mall, or anywhere, stand in line for an hour or more just to see if any of my kids will be brave enough to sit on Santa's lap and then pay $20 for a picture if they do... Anyways...at the end of the ward Christmas party, the girls had the opportunity to sit on Santa's lap. I purposely claimed a table near the back corner that was set aside for Santa at the beginning of the party so we could be near the beginning of the line. We only had to wait about five minutes...which was great, but maybe it didn't give Ella much time to prep herself. As soon as we were at the front of the line, she started backing up and got scared. Isabelle went right on up and sat on his lap. She talked to him too. I have no clue what about since I was trying to encourage Ella and take pictures at the same time. When it came time for Emery's turn, she went for the candy cane from Mrs. Claus first. I was afraid since she recieved the candy cane first, she wouldn't get on Santa's knee, but she did! Boy was I shocked! I mean, just an hour earlier she was hiding behind my legs cause there was a man standing next to me in line for food. She didn't turn and look at Santa or talk to him, she was too excited about getting her hands on a candy cane, but I'll take it!

Ella never came around, but she still got her candy cane, cause how could I deny her something each of her sisters got. I wasn't prepared to handle that forever long tantrum. 

Before the party started, our girls went over to the craft table and made letters to send to the missionaries serving from our current ward. They very much enjoyed that and they enjoyed putting their cards in the big Christmas bags to send out. Each of them chose a different missionary to send theirs to. 

Snowman Project Fail

Even with good intentions...sometimes things just don't work out. I've been pretty prepared this season. While we've had Amazon Prime for years and love it, I've never fully taken advantage of it. It never occured to me that I could buy things such as glue and construction paper...things I would have to send Curt to the store for. Often times it was solely for these things cause I would forget when making a grocery list. However, this year, I just ordered things on Amazon Prime and it's here in two days. However, I totally didn't think about getting liquid glue. So, when we sat down to glue marshmallows on our snowman...big surprise, it didn't really work. As in, at all. It was an epic failure. The girls got pretty frustrated with it actually. Ella just kept caking glue stick on and trying and retrying over and over. She was almost addicted to trying it over and over to make it work. Oh well...they can't all work out perfectly.

Santa Faces

One of all our our favorite projects this year has been putting these Santa faces together. I cut out the pieces for Santa, we glued them down and then each of the girls had their own glue stick to glue down some cotton balls on all the white space. We were totally blown away with how well Emery did. She was so coordinated with the glue stick in her left hand and putting the cotton balls down with her right. We are pretty sure she is ambidextrous, especially since it runs in both sides of our family. This is one project that because of it, she was leaps and bounds better than Ella. Poor Ella struggled big time to keep the glue off her hand and the cotton balls from sticking to her because of it. She just doesn't know her own strength and would squish glue every where. She was kind of a mess the whole time. That being said, she still liked doing it and appreciated Curt's help instead of resented it. Yay for that!

My favorite part is the eyes. We let the girls draw their own Santa eyes and noses with no help. Every time I walk past Ella's spirally "crazy" Santa eyes, I giggle to myself. :)

Letters to Santa

This year we continued on with our tradition and wrote letters to Santa. Ella went first and the first question I asked her was, "Have you been a good girl or a bad girl this year." Her response, three times and very matter of factly was, "Bad." Other than that, it was pretty anti-climatic. None of them were very forth coming with what they wanted to ask Santa for.
Ella's list consisted of:
Dora
Red girl present
Pony
Fluttershy

Emery's list consisted of:
Flowers
A Christmas tree
A girl shirt
Skirts
Necklaces
Doll

Isabelle's list consisted of:
Cadence
Purple Meg
To go Ice Skating
New books
New crayons

Nativity FHE and Project

Our first project this season is one we tied into Family Home Evening. We talked about Christmas and Jesus' birth with the girls. We watched the church's Nativity video that we all love. We paused it a couple of times and explained parts to the girls so that they would understand it and hopefully, in turn, remember it better. Afterwards we had the girls color all the pieces to the Nativity. It's quite a big project actually and they started out really strong, but by the end there were a lot of people with just a few scribbles on them. Curt and I definitely tried to help with coloring some, as you can see on Ella and Emery's Nativities. They really enjoyed this project and we love having these cute Nativities hanging in our house all season. 

Christmas Bucket List

Bucket list or To do list...either way here is what I have on our list that we are going to try and get through over the next three weeks:

1. Gift of Lights at the Texas Motor Speedway - 11/30
2. Nativity F.H.E. - 12/2
3. Caramel Apples
4. Make this Nativity out of paper
5. Color and put together this Nativity - 12/2
6. Watch the LDS Nativity videos (LOVE these!!) - 12/2, 12/8
7. Paint these candycanes -12/11
8. Take pictures in Christmas outfits 12/15
9. Attend the ward Christmas party -12/7
10. Write letters to Santa -12/3
11. Make this Santa, but not as an advent calendar - 12/5
12. Make candy to pass out to friends (make friends to give candy to...) 12/14-12/15
13. Make clay ornaments - 12/8
14. Make this angel out of paper
15. Make paper trees - 12/12
16. Make hand print Santas - 12/21
17. Color some Nativity coloring sheets - 12/4
18. Have a family Christmas movie night - 12/9
19. Find a live Nativity to go to - 12/22
20. Make marshmallow snowmen - 12/6
21. Make reindeer - 12/15
22. Decorate for Christmas - 11/22-25
23. Drink hot chocolate - 12/5
24. Have fun with some photo booth props like these
25. Take the girls to see Frozen - 12/14
26. Paint thumb print lights - 12/21
27. Paint some foot prints like these
28. Make this gingerbread boy -12/21
29. Color and make this elf -12/10
30. Play this Memory game - 12/11
31. Sit on Santa's lap - 12/7

I know...it's a long list. We may not get to it all. We may do more than one a day...but it's nice to have everything I could do in one specific place. Now, if only I knew things to do around town to add to this list. 

Fall Review

Man, I hate being behind with blogging...but especially during the holidays! So...here is an everything Fall post. I wasn't very good about taking pictures anyways, so there isn't too much that I can't pull this off anyways. Sorry, most of them are blurry iPhone pictures cause my girls (especially Emery!) CANNOT stay still!

Trader Joe's

The first thing we did Fall season related is make a trip out to Trader Joes. The girls were very excited to be getting out of the house, since for them it was literally the first time in 13 days! We didn't really go with the intentions of getting pumpkins, but that's how it ended up cause their prices were so fantastic. (As in $3 for a whole pumpkin!) We let the girls pick out the ones they wanted and after we checked out the girls found these cut outs. They had to check them out.

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Making Brooms and Acorns

I can't remember why, but our camera was refusing to work while we were doing this project, so bad iPhone pictures are all we have. We make acorns and witch's brooms out of treats to kick off our Fall projects. They girls were way more into eating them that building them. Isabelle definitely did the best...no surprise there. It was a little hard for Emery and Ella. It was still fun and they enjoyed it. In the end, it's more of a mom's project to do by herself. Especially if more than one or two a person are on the agenda. 

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Pumpkin Patch

Unfortunately...and I'm trying really hard to not dwell on it and just brush it off...my camera card corrupted and I lost all of our pumpkin patch and Halloween pictures (at least I'd already blogged Halloween). So the only pictures I have from our day at the pumpkin patch are the ones I have from my in laws' iPhones. It's better than nothing...but ugh!

We went out to way west Houston to go to the No. 1 ranked pumpkin patch in Houston. It was quite a journey. Upon arrival, we weren't quite sure it would be worth the drive, but it totally was. Yes, it was far and yes, it was expensive, but we all had fun and there was tons and tons to do. Obviously, these pictures won't do it justice since I lost about the 200 I took, but it just gives us something to look forward to next year...right? Sigh...

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Thumb Print Turkeys! 

On a Sunday evening in early November, we made these adorable thumb print turkeys. In an effort to make them not be one huge smear of a a mess, I painting each of the girls' thumbs with a paint brush and helped them stamp their thumbs in the right place. I figured if I let them dip their thumb in a puddle of paint, it would just be a mess and I'd get frustrated. Isabelle got the hang of it and stopped needing my help with the stamping part...which inspired Ella to not need help too, but it all worked out well. They loved doing it and it took up a good chunk of time so that we were ready for bed by the end. Yay. 

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Making Turkeys! 

Another fall project we did was assemble some turkeys. I made the feathers and had them all ready before the girls got involved so they just had to assemble them. It was still a lot of work to reign them in and make sure they put glue on the right side, in the correct place, etc etc. Sometimes our projects are way more work than they are worth...but then again, the girls love them and I really enjoy seeing their art work all over my fridge and art hangers. Just in the moment it can get really frustrating that they don't listen and have no patience at all.

In the end, they turned out adorable. We let the girls each color their own eyes completely by themselves. Em and Ella needed some help with their lips, but they still did those mostly by themselves too.

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Well, that's our Fall in a nut shell. Well...the ones I have pictures for. Heather, Andrew, Levi and my parents also came down for a weekend. They came for Isabelle's first Primary Program. It was one huge flop and she refused to participate in it at all. We had a fun weekend then, but I didn't take any pictures and I haven't gotten them from Heather and Andrew. We also went to Fort Worth for Thanksgiving, but the only pictures of that whole trip I took are of the girls in their Tiger Lily hats. Once again, I could get pictures from Heather and Andrew, but I haven't. I guess if I ever do, I'll have to do a part 2...but until then...Christmas is here! :)

2013 Thankful Tree

This year, we decided to have our girls do a Thankful tree during the month of November. We started off the month with a Family Home Evening explaining what it is to be grateful and thankful for things. Each day as we added one leaf to the tree for each of the girls we tried really hard to no guide their answers. However, I did try and avoid the same answer everyday, such as "Ponies!" for each one of them. Sometimes I did have to ask, "What did you enjoy today?" to get any answer from them or a different answer other than "ponies." Overall, we think it was a successful project. We didn't end up going through the whole month cause we put up our Christmas decorations the weekend before Thanksgiving, left town for Thanksgiving and lost steam because of those two things.

Here's a list of all the girls' answers:

Isabelle:
Sofia the First
Grandma
Cups
Christmas Tree
Lipstick
Running and Playing Outside
Visitors
Flowers
McDonald's Play Place
Jesus
Barbies
the Pirate Princess
Fairies
Stars
Brushing my Hair
Birds
Ponies
Movies
Barbies
Colors
Strawberry Shortcake
Feather Tiger Lily hats

Ella:
Slides
Bananas
Christmas Tree
Emery
Coloring
Halloween
Christmas
Temples
Momma
Isabelle
Dance
Candy
Baby
Leaves
Cars
My Dad
Turkeys
Daddy
Ponies
Dolls
Phones
Heather

Emery:
Food
Ice Cream
Phones
Computers
Houses
Dance
Jesus
Make Up
the Museum
Books
Cereal
Park
Squinkies
Our House
Pink
Yummy Alfredo Dinner
Shoes
Dancing
Ice Cream
Painting
Green
Toys

Levi (the one night he was here):
Isabelle
Emery
Ella
Grammie
Papa

Happy Thanksgiving

Last night we drove back to Houston from Fort Worth and spending time there for Thanksgiving. Once again, I took almost no pictures at all...but the single pictures we did take are of the girls on Thanksgiving morning. My mom made the girls "Tiger Lily" hats (and I had to braid Emery and Isabelle's hair so they had Tiger Lily hair too). They are totally in love with them. In fact, they've even been wearing them this morning around the house. They are so super adorable! (Too bad the pictures aren't better...but you know...)

20 Weeks

In so many ways, I've been in denial that I'm pregnant. It a really strange situation following a miscarriage. I'll just leave it at that since it's personal and I don't quite know how to put it all into words anyways. The point of this post anyways, is to write about this little boy's pregnancy and get it recorded. So far, this pregnancy hasn't been a cake walk...just like my other's weren't. However, it wasn't nearly as bad as it was with Emery and Ella. It was much more like Isabelle's pregnancy. In fact, the only reason this pregnancy felt any different was because I didn't show for so very long. It's really only since hitting 20 weeks that I look pregnant at all. Now that I can look down and see a belly, it's making it a lot more real. That combined with finding out it's a boy and feeling him kick for about two or three weeks now has really pulled me out of my denial and made me realize I am actually going to have a baby at the end of this. I'm still freaking out about that a little bit...to be honest, but I'm finally excited too. The thoughts of having a little boy in our home make me a little nervous...I mean, I haven't ever had a little boy living in my home. I only have sisters and I only have girls. So, for that reason, I'm nervous. However, I'm thrilled with the idea of having a little boy in our family. We really couldn't be happier or more excited.

Here are some other things that are going on with the pregnancy:

• At about 31 weeks with Emery and Ella my pelvic bone was under some serious stress. I'm pretty sure it actually cracked. It took a long time for it to heal after the babies were delivered and I still had pain in the same spot whenever the kids put any pressure on it while sitting on me or whatever. That pain has already started to surface. It doesn't stay for extended periods of time, but it gets bad enough that it's very painful to walk around. 
• There have been some cravings...mostly for tater tots, but I've still been struggling with food and finding it appealing to eat. It's been a lot better in the past two or three weeks, but I still wish I didn't have to eat at all. 
• I still throw up every few days. Specially when I don't eat fast enough in the mornings. Or if I get up before nine. Every time I have in the past few weeks, I've ended up getting sick. 
• I live with a headache, probably 90% of the time. 
• My nose is almost always slightly congested. This is a symptom I have almost my whole pregnancy, with all four of them. 
• Even though I am finally starting to show, I can still fit in my normal pants. My uterus still doesn't poke out much, it's just pushed everything up. 
• I'm finally starting to get out of my total lack of motivation to do anything at all stage. Yay. I've even done some Christmas crafting this past week. It feels great to not be so sick that it zaps any desire to do anything. 
• With each pregnancy I seem to learn more and more tricks to combat the morning (100% all day) sickness. My essential oils, preggie pops (thanks Mom), ginger mints (thanks Madelyn) and SeaBands have all been imperative to helping me get through the first 17 weeks. 
• I have pain in my right side in my belly, from the very beginning. It comes and goes, but it's always in the exact same spot. The doctor doesn't seem to have any answers. 

Friends

In September I went up to Fort Worth for my girls to stay with Grandma while I went to Utah and Idaho for a long weekend. I pretty much didn't take any pictures of my trip...I just kind of checked out. When I got back to Fort Worth, I spent a few days there before treking it back to Houston. On one morning, we met some friends at the park. We rarely go to parks...they stress me out with three girls running in opposite directions. Now that they are a little older, it isn't so bad anymore. Because of us not going much in the past three years, my girls love to go. They all had a blast. Isabelle loved being able to play with her self declared best friend. I have to admit...it makes my heart really sad that these two don't get to spend more time together. Especially since Isabelle hasn't really made many friends, and no good friends, here in Houston. I love this picture though. Both girls so happy and willing to pose for a picture. I love watching them interact.

It's A BOY!

We are beyond excited, thrilled and happy to know that the little baby in my belly is a BOY!

Yes, this picture is taken in the car. My doctor is about an hour south of where we live. Not that a close doctor would mean Curt could come to my appointments with me, but the distance definitely adds to the reality that Curt couldn't take the time off of work to come to the sonogram with me. So, I had the doctor write down the sex of the baby on a paper and not tell me at the appointment so Curt and I could find out at the same time. After my appointment, I drove to Curt's work and managed to make it there while he was still on his lunch break. He came down to the car and he opened the paper. I was way too nervous to open it. I couldn't even look at the paper until Curt looked and told me to look. I immediately started crying. We were both just so happy (and relieved...don't judge)! Since there is quite a bit of distance between us and our families, we sent this picture to everyone to share the news. We are soooo thrilled! Beyond thrilled! April can't come soon enough!! :)

Baby Frog

The evening before we left to move to Houston, the girls went outside to play with a little baby frog my dad had discovered. It had just rained, which is probably why my dad found the frog in the first place. The girls really liked playing with him. Only Isabelle held him though.

Pioneer Day

I'm throwing order and chronological posts to the wind and just concentrating on getting some posts up. Blogging about Fort Worth makes me homesick...so I'll start with one of the first things we did when we moved to Houston. The first weekend we were here, our new ward had a Pioneer Day Ward Party. I have to admit...being welcomed to a ward at a party is a pretty good start. It made a lot of my nerves calm down that everyone was so friendly, went out of their way to come introduce themselves and also be in a ward fun enough to throw such a fantastic Pioneer Day party. We started off with a donut breakfast followed by a pioneer costume parade. Even in the morning, watching this 3 minute parade was enough to make us drenched in the humid July! We were glad it was a short parade. :) Then we went inside again to explore some of the activities the primary had put together. There was lots too. Most of them were a bit too old for my girls to understand, but they still loved it.

We really enjoyed ourselves and it made us very excited for our ward. (Which has been awesome and such a blessing!)


In addition to all the activities and the party itself, the primary printed out a 25 page coloring packet for each of the kids. We used the packet in our Family Home Evening two days later. We explained what pioneers actually were and used a clip from the Legacy movie to demonstrate pioneers and wagons etc. Then we colored the packets for our activity. So, part + FHE activity = one happy family! :)