Surprise!

Last week, when I was sick, Ethan went outside to play with his friend.  A little while later he came in the house and requested that Todd come out and see something.  I took this video a couple days later, but it's the same thing Todd saw:

Ethan can ride his bike!!!!!  If you ask Ethan, he'll tell you that his friend taught him how to ride his bike.  But I give most of the credit to his razor scooter.  Seriously, if you want your child to learn how to ride a bike, buy them a scooter!

We were so proud of him.  Now we just need to buy him a bigger bike . . . that kid keeps growing like a weed!

Our Little Visitors

It was fun to arrive home the other day to see this little crew walking through our yard:

 they stayed for a long time, but not long enough for us.  We hope they come again!

I'm Alive

I haven't posted in a long time.  It might have something to do with the stomach bug I had.  Sitting with your head over the toilet doesn't make for easy blogging.  :)  Luckily, it appears the rest of the family is/was mostly unaffected by the bug.  The remains of my gaggy morning sickness made it much worse for me.

Ethan started T-Ball/coach pitch this week and LOVED it.  He even hit a coach pitch ball during a game on Tuesday, sending it almost all the way to second base!  He's a lot more aggressive in T-Ball than soccer and I think this will help him like soccer or other sports he tries in the future even more.

Madeline enjoyed crazy hair day at preschool yesterday, sporting four wacky and random pony tails coming out from her head.  She also has fun playing at the playground during Ethan's games and making friends with the other little girls there.

Apparently most people think I'm going to have a boy.  The votes were 10 for boy and 5 for girl.  I laughed a little, but mostly because I didn't even know that 15 people read my blog.  :)  I can't believe we'll find out in FOUR DAYS.  My ultrasound is coming up soon.  Honestly, I'm just going to be glad to see if everything is good with the babe.

We had some fun visitors in our yard yesterday.  I'll have to get the pictures off the camera and post those sometime soon.  Along with all the other pictures I've taken and forgotten about!

Hope you have a great weekend.

Ballet Bun

Today Madeline had pajama day at Preschool and chose her ballet shoe pjs.  Then she requested that I put her hair in a bun.  A bun!  I didn't even know she knew what a bun was.  And she was very adamant about the bun being on the top of her head, not the back.  When I finished, I just thought it was the perfect opportunity to take a few photos:

Crocheted Baby Blanket

Last night I finished a project I've been working on for a long time.  A crocheted baby blanket:

 I found the pattern here.  My goal was to finish it before May, so I'm happy about that!

 I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, especially because I've only crocheted three other things in my life!  It turned out square (wu!) and is soft and snuggly.

Next on my list to tackle:  reshaping and recovering my glider rocker . . .

Boy or Girl?

Babies seem to be on my mind a lot.  Hmmm, wonder why?  The photo shoot only helped this cause.  Followed by my ultrasound being scheduled for May 2nd!!  So for the fun of it, I made a little poll over on the side so you can vote boy or girl.  Just humor me and vote even if I already know what your vote is.

What's it going to be?

Two More

two more pretties

Baby Hazel

I'd like you to meet baby Hazel:

 I was lucky enough to do a photo shoot with her a few days ago.  She is the precious daughter of one of my husband's cousins.

 so tiny.  so darling.

 I don't think I would ever tire of newborn photo shoots.  They are my favorite, I think.

 Food photography is awesome, but the post editing isn't nearly as fun.

 I LOVE this one:

 and I'll end the post with feet!

I can't wait to do a shoot like this with my own . . . aaaah!  So excited!  And if I ever get a hold of another newborn, I just might bring all my stuff to take some photos!

xoxo to baby Hazel.

Easter Fun

We had fun dying Easter eggs:

 Madeline insisted on keeping both pink dyes and "promised" they were different from each other.  Only a girl who loves pink as much as Madeline has a trained eye for noticing such slight variations in the coloring!

 She also dyed one of her eggs orange, but only after drawing a princess on it first with the clear crayon

 Bright colors, stripes, and stickers:

 Excited for an egg hunt in our back yard on Saturday:

 and humoring mom after the egg hunt by posing for a picture by the tulips:

Lemon-Berry Shortcake Cake

I pinned the recipe for this lovely cake a few weeks ago thinking it would be great for Easter.  It's so nice to be feeling good enough to bake again!  I enjoyed making this cake and now I'm really in the mood to bake and bake and bake!

I followed the recipe I pinned in every way except that I added lemon juice to the frosting and omitted half the butter.  It whipped up to a nice texture and tasted really good!  Sigh, I like cake.  I just might have to have a piece for lunch.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!

Hope your day is filled with the love of Christ,
family, tulips, and sweets.  

Dino Park Pics . . . finally!

The Dino Park was another highlight of our Cali trip.  Ethan especially LOVED it, no surprise!

 all five cousins

 The favorite part of the dino park was climbing up the inside of a GIANT T-Rex!  Here are the kids inside his mouth!

 I guess it's the biggest one in the world.  :)

 There were also mechanical dinosaurs that moved, which the kids loved.

We also did a little panning for colorful rocks.  Madeline loved that, and got to take home a little bag full of pink, purple, blue, red, and green rocks.

Lots of fun!

Update

I still haven't finished going through the pictures for our California trip.  And since then, we've had another incredibly fun week with cousins on the other side!  An impromptu visit of cousins from New Mexico made one six year old boy I know extremely happy!  They've had sleepovers and parities and spent hours and hours running around on Grandpa's farm!  This has been the best off-track time ever!

But I didn't ever take my camera . . . blah.  I hope to steal pics from my sisters-in-law though!

In other news, I'm 15 weeks now!  Wu!  On Tuesday I have an appointment and that's where I schedule my ultrasound.  I'm getting excited for that.  And as always, I'm hoping the baby is doing well.  The next month or so should be fairly telling in that regard.  And how am I feeling?  Let's just say that the next few months are going to be long for my hips, among other joints.  But that's okay!  Morning sickness is much better now.  And I don't have to take naps anymore!  Wu!  I've never liked naps.

Is it a boy or a girl?  Sometimes I'm just sure and sometimes I'm not at all.  That's why the crocheted blanket I'm working on right now is cream.  Soft and cute and cream.

And now I need a snack  . . .