We have been doing "Easter week" activities over here since last Sunday (Palm Sunday). It has been fun to teach the girls about the events leading up to Christ's resurrection. I have always felt like we should make Easter as "fun" as Christmas since it is a really important holiday, and too often we didn't say much about it until Easter Sunday. One day is just not enough to celebrate the atonement and resurrection of Christ, nor is it enough to explain to a child the true meaning of the holiday. I've enjoyed teaching (and learning) about each day of the Savior's last week.
This has nothing to do with what I wrote above, but it has been gnawing at me that I havent been so good about recording what our family has been doing, so I decided to throw some pics up from tonight.
Olivia was super into painting the eggs and I love the concentration on her cute face! Each girl got 5 eggs to color and somehow all of Scarlett's ended up being about the same color :) We just used Kool-aid to color eggs this year. Super cheap, super easy, super not stinky (no vinegar), and super washable!
Love that sweet innocent face trying to put her apple in the egg cup.
From left to right: Scarlett's, Brady's, mine, Liv's
I was pretty sure I was pregnant with a boy because I haven't been anywhere near as nauseous this time (compared to both my other pregnancies) and had no food aversions. The only way I even knew I was really pregnant was that I was SOOOO tired. I had to go to bed at 9 or 9:30 every night, and for this night owl it seemed so strange to be going to bed so early. I couldn't fight it, and that one time that I did fight it and stay up til 11 (I normally stay up til 12 or so), I had a headache all day the next day, so I never fought it again ;) And I just might be converted for the rest of my life!
Sleep = good :)
Probably won't be going to bed at 9:30 but 10:30 seems like a reasonable hour these days.
Besides being tired and craving salty foods and fruit (strawberries and green grapes), I haven't had too many other symptoms.
The sweet little girls have been just dying to know if its a baby brother or sister in my tummy, especially Olivia. She is beyond excited to get "her own" baby! She has been begging for me to have another baby for at least a year, if not longer. She would sometimes draw pictures of our family with a baby drawn in also, and she took a huge interest in baby dolls (more than ever before). She spots babies (and dogs) from a mile away and will always want to go over and say hi to the baby. Many of her friends have a baby brother or sister so that has only fueled her desire to have one of her own!
Scarlett has always loved babies and baby dolls, so she is also very excited; however, I don't think she fully understands what it all means. She will say hi to the baby in my tummy and then talk about the baby in her tummy :)
Both girls have been saying they thought it was a baby boy, until of course we took this video and Scarlett decided girl. I think she was a little confused, she really wanted some pink frosting regardless of what the baby was! After all, pink is her favorite color (and Liv's favorite color is blue)!
We used this picture to announce on facebook that I was pregnant and having a boy! Olivia actually saw the "baby boy" we had written on the chalkboard and asked, "What's that for?" I figured she couldn't read it and wouldn't put it together (we hadn't told them yet) . She said, "Why does it say boy". Brady said "where" trying to buy time to think of what to say. She said, "well I know that word says "boy".....the blue word right there". Luckily Brady said, "it says 'girl or boy'"! And that worked. Phew.
And then she drew this cute picture of our family, that I ended up using to slyly announce on instagram that I was pregnant, and posted the "baby boy" pic the following day to confirm.
One more story, I was watching someone else's gender reveal where they used a box and opened it up and blue or pink balloons came out, and Olivia saw it and decided that I had to do that for her! I never planned on doing that, and frankly, I'm too lazy. Papering a big box and then decorating it so cute, and going to party city for helium balloons sounded like a lot of work (read above where I talk about how tired I am), so when it was finally time I just asked her if she would rather have a cake instead of a box of balloons- and she shouted "Yeah! Cake! Cake!" :) Calling in to have someone else make a cake for me, way more up my alley these days. To be totally honest, I had not planned on doing anything, I was just going to have them come to the ultrasound with us and they could hear right from the US tech's mouth whether it was a boy or girl! I still think they would have had just as much fun doing it that way, but they sure wanted some cake!! And we ended up finding out 4 weeks earlier so it all worked out just as it was meant to!
I will admit, we decorated before Thanksgiving...I have never in my 29 years of life decorated before Thanksgiving, but we did this year. Brady had just finished a test so he had spare time and I wanted it to be fun and relaxing, and we were already planning on staying in a hotel the day after Thanksgiving (which is when we normally decorate), so we just did it!
I baked (broke apart and put in the oven) what we called 'frozen heart cookies' and played Christmas music while Liv held ornaments and spun around in awe, Scarlett jingled bells and danced, and Brady tied and tied strings on ornaments. When it was all done, we read our nighttime scripture by the twinkling tree. Such a fun evening with the people I love!
We've been babysitting babies a lot lately so I've had this baby swing out. Scarlett loves to crawl in and pretend to be asleep.
In our house it's not Black Friday, it's just the day after Thanksgiving. There is no rushing, shopping, or driving. Just sitting around, playing, eating leftovers, watching movies, and being together!
Maybe when the girls are a little older we'll try the shopping.
This year we decided to take advantage of the great military discount we get on Marriott Hotel rooms and go stay a night at the JW in Indianapolis. We would be right downtown and close enough to walk to the "Circle of Lights" tree lighting event they do every year! We had to go swimming of course immediately when we got to the hotel (just me and Liv) and then we went up and got dressed to leave. Livy was SOOO excited to see the lights! Once we started walking her tune changed. It was chilly and she just does not do well in cold weather (even though she had on a puffy down coat, the warmest mittens, socks and boots...I definitely should have layered her pants).
Scarlett loved seeing and meeting Anna and Elsa, Mickey and Minnie, and SANTA!! Scarli the ever joyful girl was dancing and having a grand ole time! While sweet Liv was ready to go, but waited so we could see the lights and fireworks!
I know this is overkill, but its too funny to look at all the faces they pull! Liv would not stop coughing except when we weren't taking pics, and Scarlett was hamming it up :) I was just enjoying my two cuties.
A couple days before Thanksgiving the girls each made a Turkey and colored each feather with something they were thankful for.
Liv was thankful that she can be quiet, that spring is coming and she can smell the flowers, that she can run fast, frozen heart cookies, her little sister, this craft, and snowmen
Scarli's cute turkey
The day before thanksgiving our sweet Livy came down with the flu. She came into my bedroom that morning and asked me what day it was. I told her it was Wed, preschool day, and she got a sad look and said, "Mom, I'm sick so I can't go to preschool". I knew immediately that she must really be sick because she would never ever give up on going to preschool that easily! We went down and had waffles (I would regret giving her breakfast very soon), and i set her up on the couch with her pillow and blanket. After a minute she came over to me and wanted to cuddle, which is not uncommon when she is not feeling well. Then she told me her tummy was hurting and I asked her if she needed to throw up. She said no, so we just cuddled until she shot up and cried "I'm gonna throw up"! I scooped her up and ran to bathroom! The second we got in she let it explode! Unfortunately the toilet lid was down so it went all over the seat and ricocheted everywhere. Not super fun to clean, but I love my baby so much and I love taking care of her. I gave her a bath and then we got a bowl next to her for the rest of the day, which I was cleaning all day since she continued to throw up all morning, almost every 10 mins. It is so sad to watch her little body throw up like that, I wanted to cry for her every time. Luckily by the night she was done with the vomiting, and on Thanksgiving she did start to feel better after a nap, and wanted to watch what we were so busy doing in the kitchen :)
This year we decided to forego the friends celebrations and do the whole shabang for our little family. With Brady being gone so much for school, sometimes going out with friends is too draining for us. Not because we don't like our friends, but just because we need and want time alone with each other and our kids need us too. I guess we are both a bit introverted and need some home time to recharge. I always feel a bit torn when we decline offers to be with friends because I hate missing out, but when Liv was sick we were extra glad we didn't have to leave anyone hanging, and that we already had all our food and didn't have to miss out on the traditional Thanksgiving meal!
It was really fun coming up with a menu together and cooking some new things from scratch! When trying to decide what to make for dessert we had a handful of pies that we wanted to make. We decided we better dial it back since we would already have tons of leftovers and we didn't want a TON of pies leftover too! We finally chose pecan pie and dark chocolate banana cream pie. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to make pecan pie and the dark chocolate was delicious!! It didn't set up quite right but we didn't care!
first time making cranberry sauce
finished product
a little snack to tide her over
Our fist time making a turkey!
The highlight of our day was getting to talk with Grammy and Grampy in Madagascar!
Hearing of how they are helping the people there and the things that the people there have to worry about really makes us reflect on what we truly need to be happy and realize that we do have SO so much to be grateful for. This year we are specifically grateful for clean water, our house that gives us shelter, warm cozy beds, good people and good friends in many different places, good food, and of course wonderful family, in particular two very sweet girls.
