Test from the iPhone

Adam got me the new iPhone 4 for Christmas. I feel so spoiled! Would you believe that is the first phone we have ever paid for?! We have always gone for the free ones. It is such an awesome phone.... So cool that I can even blog from it. Maybe I will blog more. No promises :)

baby practice

The girls love babies. They love baby dolls and real babies too. Lately it seems like all they talk about... guess they are excited. Wonder if that excitement will be the same once Layla is here??

Here the girls are cuddling while watching a show. Grace told me to take a picture and said that they were practicing holding the baby. Notice Emma has her pinkie finger in the baby's mouth.

On a shopping trip to Target this year we bought a couple small baby dolls to give as Christmas gifts. Grace put the baby under her shirt and said "I've got a baby in my tummy"... and so it began. There are babies in a lot of tummies in our house. Besides mommy baby, Emma has a baby in her tummy often.

11 weeks (or maybe a little sooner) Miss Layla will be here!! Oh and her room is officially pink!! Painting is done.

Christmas 2010

What a busy Christmas season we have had. December was filled with parties and programs, 2 cookie decorating parties with friends, book exchanges, light looking and even a couple events for the adults :)

Here are a few pics from Christmas eve and Christmas morning.

Christmas Eve we headed to church and managed to take a couple pics after.

The girls loving on eachother. I promise they aren't always so lovey but for some reason when we are in public they are BFF's... its sort of funny.
One of our last pictures as a family of 4. Hard to believe that Miss Layla will be here in 11 weeks or less. (don't you like my festive black for Christmas... sliming is what I was hoping for!)

Christmas morning the girls woke us up around 7:30 and told us that Santa had come. Here are the girls posing. We were pretty simple this year since the girls just got new beds and bedding (another post) so a doll for everyone it was... including Miss Layla who Santa was sweet not to forget and brought a little plush doll for (in the middle on the floor).

The biggest hit of the day was unicorn pillow pets from their Aunt Tricia and Uncle Todd. They have been dragging them around the house everywhere too.. who knew that was the toy of the year!

Hope you and your family had a very Merry Christmas!

A name...

Baby girl #3 has a name....

This was really the very first name I suggested to Adam totally thinking he wouldn't go for it, but he liked it so it was added to the list. A very short list I might add. This time was much harder because we wanted something that went well with Grace and Emma and we wanted a name that a friend or family member didn't already name their child. We mentioned our top 2 names to the girls and somehow Layla just sort of stuck. The girls have been calling her by her name for sometime now, but we just weren't quite ready to write it on paper.

We are thrilled to bring Miss Layla into our family in just about 11 weeks!

Santa 2010 (and years past)

Another good picture with Santa. Both girls were really excited to see Santa this year. Emma wasn't too sure what to think though once she sat in his lap. This was the only picture we could get of her looking at the camera... she just kept starting at him. Grace told Santa she wanted playdou for Christmas and Emma wouldn't say anything so Grace told Santa that Emma wanted a baby (news to me!).

Here was the infamous picture with Santa and for fun all the past years. I love that we can visit the same Santa year after year. :)

2010

2009
2008

2007 2006

my third sweet baby girl update... 27 weeks

I can't even believe I'm 27 weeks and 3 days.

Last week I was starting to feel a little overwhelmed that we had done NOTHING to prepare for this sweet baby girl growing inside me. So in a weeks time this is what we have done...

1. moved all Grace's old furniture out of her room and set up the baby crib. (We actually moved Grace and Emma into a room together a couple months ago and they are doing great and love being with their sister.... most of the time... I'll post pictures of their room soon... when its finished!)

2. Ordered an infant car seat and stroller. Early this year (before I was preggo) I sold my old car seat and stroller mainly b/c it was going to expire (yes car seats expire after 5 years) and really I thought IF we had another baby it would be a long time from now. My parents graciously offered to buy a new car seat for the baby and we were lucky to find a great deal!

3. Bought paint. Yes we only bought the paint. A very very pale shade of pink. Hopefully we (meaning Adam) will get a chance to paint sometime this month. I'm so excited about the pink. Grace's nursery was yellow and Emma's was green, so its fun to actually have a pink girly nursery! :)

4. Registered at the hospital. I actually had not thought about this, but my OB told me at my appointment this week to go ahead and get registered. And the hospital I'm delivering at has online registration. So easy and fast!

5. I think we may have decided on a name for our precious third baby girl.... not quite ready to write it down and make official, but we can't manage to think of anything that would be better. I'll let you know soon.

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On another note, I've been meaning to make a note of all the things the girls have been saying these last couple months. They are so excited and its so cute to see their excitement. When I was pregnant with Emma, Grace was still so little so this is all very new.

Things Grace says:

- We were at shoe store a couple months ago and when we were checking out she told the cashier "my mommy has a baby in her tummy"... that was the first (of now many) times she has told a stranger about the baby. This has now turned into telling random people at even more random times about the baby growing in my belly.

- She always comes up to my belly and asks if the baby is kicking. She puts both hands on my belly and starts rubbing. It's super cute that is always asking but sometimes she wont get her hands off me.

- Every time we cuddle she is so concerned about hurting the baby. The other day I was laying on the couch and she wanted to lay with me... only there isn't so much room anymore. So she told the baby to move. HAHA! ... if it were only that easy.

Things Emma says:

- She loves to pull my shirt up and poke on my belly button and ask if the baby is coming out. She wants the baby to be here now.

- Emma has been asking if my tummy hurts. I guess it all stretched out just doesn't look comfy.

I guess that's about it for now. I just can't believe how quickly this pregnancy is going. I have to to do yucky glucose test this next week and I also start going to the OB every 2 weeks! I've still been feeling pretty good minus a few aches and pains and weird ailments that I'll save you from hearing about. Let's just say that with each pregnancy it truly is harder on your body... probably doesn't help that I'm trying to keep up with my 2 big girls! :)

The 3-day

I don't think I can completely describe the 3-day accurately. While the blisters and pains I had during the walk are slowly fading, I will never forget the laughs, the tears, and the overwhelming support that we had while we journeyed through those 3-days.

It was over 6 months ago that I took the plunge and signed up to walk 60 miles in the course of 3-days. I also committed to raising $2300. But I knew those challenges were nothing compared to what someone has to go through when they are diagnosed with breast cancer. I know Christee would have much rather walked a mear 60 miles than loose her battle and her life.

What a learned is that everyone deserves a lifetime and that is why I walked. That is why I raised money.

I also walked for my daughters. Some people thought I was crazy to walk while 22 weeks pregnant, but I thought I was crazy not to. I had the pleasure of walking next to women that were clearly going through treatments, twice my age or size and yet they pushed on (many passed me!). If they could do it, then surely I could.

So without going into the details, I thought I would share a few pictures. 3 amazing days with some pretty amazing women that I'm lucky to call my friends. I'm blessed beyond words. Thank you for thoughts, prayers, donations, phone calls, emails and texts. Each one meant so much to me and will not be forgotten.

My team and I at the opening ceremony... ready to walk! Yes it was still dark!

A perfect sign for me :)

And my team at the finish... all 60 miles completed!!

Halloween 2010

If you go to Disney world the same month as Halloween and you have little girls, you have no choice but to be Disney Princesses! :)

Thankfully I think I had 2 pretty cute princesses!

The week we got back from Disney World Grace said she wanted to Belle. Probably b/c we had just gotten Beauty and the Beast that had been released from the Disney vault.

I love this picture of Grace. She is looking so grown up these days!

And my silly girl Emma... I never got a fabulous picture of her all night, but this one will do. She was a beautiful Cinderella! The blue dress really brought out her blue eyes.

For the 3rd year in a row we got together with some neighbors for a little pre-trick or treating dinner and then made a loop around the neighborhood! The girls had a blast... however they were a little scared some of the costumes. Really I'm quite surprised some parents let their kids dress up so scary... maybe that is the girl mom in me talking?! :)

Hope you and your family had a fabulous Halloween filled with fun!

Baby #3 is a.....

GIRL!!!

First off, I feel terrible that I've known for nearly 2 weeks. I guess this is just how things will go with baby #3... things will always be late. But since it was our last baby we decided to do something a little different to announce the gender.

We had our doctor not tell us the sex and had her write down the sex of the baby and put it an envelope. I then gave the envelope to my good friend Melissa. She was so sweet to make us a cake with pink or blue inside.

We then had a bunch of our friends and family come over. We told them to wear blue if they thought we were having a boy and pink if they thought we were having a girl.

As you can see it was pretty split... maybe with a few extra blues?

The Big Sisters had a blast too....

And it was time to cut into our cake...

Our PINK cake that is...

see our reaction!

I'm laughing and I think Adam is thinking about 3 weddings... haha!

We couldn't be more thrilled about a 3rd daughter. We know girls, we love girls and what could be more special than 2 sisters for each of my girls.

We got to peak in on the baby again today to do a full anatomy ultrasound and the baby was perfect in every way. She was measuring 3 days a little small but nothing out of the normal. She weighted in at approximatly 14 oz and is about 9.5 inches long. Hard to believe that in 19 weeks she will be here!!

Thanks for sharing in our joy and excitement as we prepare for our 3rd blessing!!

Disney World 2010

Here they are finally... Disney World pictures. What an amazing family vacation filled with lots of memories. Two weeks later the girls are still talking about it! The girls were pretty good the whole trip ... only a couple meltdowns! As you can see by the pictures they loved every minute of it! We were lucky to bring my mom along which was a super help and also gave Adam and I a night out to dinner alone in Downtown Disney! Enjoy the pictures... I broke it up into the different parks. Enjoy!

Magic Kingdom!

The family in front of the castle - yes its pink! They actually changed the color of it all the time! So fun!

Our first character picture - Donald dressed up for something??

Buzz Lightyear ride - Grace loved it!

On our way out for a nap we caught a parade! Emma was so tired and hot as you can see. Thankfully it rained shortly after this and cooled things off!

The girls watching the parade.

Another day and castle photo :)

Disney grounds were beautiful! It is amazing how much property there is and it is all beautifully landscaped and maintained!

Grace being silly!

And Pinocchio. It's funny how excited the girls got when they saw a character... even ones they didn't know!

Dinner at Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary!

On our way to dinner we stopped at the entrance of Magic Kingdom to snap some pictures. It was all decorated for Fall/Halloween!

Grace and Minnie - my favorite picture of her!

Emma and Minnie - we have lots of pictures of like this with Emma just staring at the character. She was in love!

Grace was showing Minnie her Minnie - it was really cute!

Mickey!

Pluto!
Goofy was so funny!

Hollywood Studios!

Grace (aka the tour guide). Only in Disney do they have kid maps and parent maps!

Mr. Potato head at the Toy Story ride... he sang and danced!!

Toy Story Ride... so fun! Wished we could have done it more than once... but it was a super hot ride so we only wanted to wait once :) It was actually our ride we waited for the longest - maybe 15 minutes. Super nice to go during "value season"... can't imagine what the busy season is like!

Lunch at the 50's diner!

Dessert at the 50's diner... this was huge! The picture doesn't do it justice!

Animal Kingdom!

All of us in front of The Tree of Life. It really was so beautiful and lush at AK.

Chip and Dale!

The Lion King show! This was my favorite show... lots of acrobatics and great music!!

The girls and Pluto and goofy!

Epcot and Princess dinner!
daddy and his princesses waiting for fireworks

Ariel

Snow White

Cinderella - Emma loved her!!

Sleeping Beauty

Princess Emma sleeping on the way to dinner! She was too excited to take a nap this day.

Princess Grace

Daisy Duck

Can't wait till we get to go back... maybe in a few years with the new baby!!