Only good news this time

No. Not good news. GREAT NEWS!

Aaron finished classes last week. He claims he is done being a student for the rest of his life. Hopes are that he'll finish his thesis by June (before the baby arrives) and receive his Master's Degree in Engineering then also. Congratulations honey. You know that I am SO proud of you!

Aaron has also been working on setting up a swing set that a neighbor gave us. This neighbor told us in early January that if we wanted his swing set, to go and get it. So, in freezing temps, Aaron (with some help) got it taken apart and moved into our yard. Since he's been in school, it's taken longer than he would have liked to get it set up in our yard, but his first free Saturday from studying (last Saturday), the kids were able to fully utilize it. They were in heaven.

Now our backyard takes twice as long to mow with the obstacles to mow & weedwhip around.

Olivia got the remainder of her immunizations she needed before starting kindergarten (this fall) this week. Three shots. Not one tear. What a tough girl!

The last part of our great news is that Olivia found my ring!!! I think I freaked her out with all the hugs and kisses and excitement. I held my hopes high the entire time it was missing because of some good friends that let me know their's had gone missing for a month or two and then it would show up.

(Olivia's hand is much cuter than mine these days.)


It really is a miracle though. I swear I lost it in Olivia's room while putting lotion on Carter. Well, Olivia just found it laying on the living room carpet. I have vacuumed in here several times, had several babies playing on this carpet, gone through a disgusting vacuum bag, etc...



I'm so lucky!
(this song is for Cathy)

Olivia's got skin

I have really been bad about taking pictures lately. I can blame that on being tired all the time, right? I have remembered to write down some of the fun things that Olivia has said lately though...

** While I was doing Olivia's hair one morning last week she asked me a question that I had to be careful with. "Mommy, am I skinny?" My mind was quickly trying to come up with a place where she might have heard this because we really don't use that word around our house. So I asked her, "Do you know what skinny means?"

Olivia quickly answered, "Yes. It means you have lots of skin."

Oh, well then, sure! You are skinny ;)




** Olivia was styling Aaron's hair on Sunday morning. She had combed and combed for quite awhile when she stopped to tell Aaron this: "You have a hole in the back of your head."
She was referring to his cowlick.



** While I was doing some ironing earlier this week, Olivia came downstairs and asked, "When you are 40, are you a teenager or a grown-up?" I let her know that 40 would probably be considered a grown-up. She responded with, "Oh, so all I have to do is wait until I'm 40 and then I'll be a grown-up?"


Yup. Sure.

It didn't end there though.

Olivia then asked me if I have been 40 yet.

Good News & Bad

Good news first. I'm going to make it official and say that

CARTER IS POTTY TRAINED!

(knock, knock, knock on wood)
It's been nearly three weeks with no accidents during the day and staying dry at night. I've not used a pull-up for over a week and I've quit reminding him over and over that he needs to go potty. Hooray for Carter! I just really hope that we don't have a relapse in June when someone new invades his world.

(Olivia was pretending that Carter was her baby and he fell asleep. Carter is trying to give up napping all together, but still has a hard time making it to 5pm without zonking out wherever he is.)

Bad news is really just my own bad news. I took my wedding ring off over two weeks ago to put lotion on Carter and haven't seen it since. Talk about a sick feeling. I think it's around the house somewhere, I just don't know where since I've looked in all the obvious places about 1 billion times. I may just throw a party if I do find it. Not to mention, never take it off again!

My favorite people (and You Tube video)

I've been trying to think of things I could update with for the past few days now and I'm still not coming up with much of anything creative. I really don't have any pictures and so this could be quite boring.

Although we haven't had anything real exciting going on, we are so glad that things are just going smoothly for the most part.

Aaron only has two weeks of class left before finals this quarter. I know he is looking forward to moving back upstairs (he does 90% of his studying downstairs so he's less distracted). He'll still be working on his thesis in order to graduate, but we're hopeful that it will all be done with before the baby comes in June. GE continues to treat us well even with all the economic changes. We are so blessed that Aaron has such a great job.

Olivia gets smarter by the day. She's always writing things and asking me how things are spelled. She's getting better about sounding things out on her own though: Olivia spends a good portion of her days sitting at the kitchen table with her scissors, tape, crayons, paper, etc. I am always getting "mail" from her filled with loves notes. I certainly haven't ignored the fact that her and Carter are playing together a lot better these days too.

Carter just warms my heart. When he's well rested, he is a joy to be around. He talks in full sentences and calls his big sister by her real name (not "Mee-Mee"). I do think his favorite person is his daddy though. Carter still wakes up before 6am most mornings and since I honestly can't get up that early anymore, he watches more Disney than I'm going to admit to. He's making up for it though by getting closer and closer to being potty trained.

I am doing great and feel guilty (sometimes) for having such easy pregnancies. Third trimester symptoms have come a bit earlier than I remember them coming in the past though. I could easily take a two hour nap every afternoon, my sense of smell is is off and I'm starting to look at bedroom closets with that "nesting" feeling (aka, it needs to be organized BEFORE the baby gets here). Not to mention that I've gained record weight this pregnancy and so my clothes are becoming uncomfortably tight already. Please don't think I'm complaining though...I'm not. Life is good.

I leave you with the link to my new favorite You Tube video:

This is a work of art if you ask me! (Love ya Robyn!)

Valentine's Day 2009

We had a great Valentine's Day at our house!

My Valentine's Day gift came a few days early this year:

Our first sofa!

Carter was so excited to ride with Daddy in his truck on Valentine's morning to go buy Olivia and I roses.

I then did my traditional "knock and run" to leave my favorite Valentine's their gifts. (I knock on the door, leave the gifts on the doorstep and run before they catch me.) Carter thought that Aaron's gift was for him and he was delighted to get a new screwdriver set. Seriously.

But in the end, my little Valentine's were happy with candy and punchballs.

Carter then got to go outside and help his daddy get started on putting together our (hand-me-down) swing-set while Olivia and I made sugar cookies.

Yes, there is a cookie underneath all of that decor.

"One piece for the cookie, two pieces for me. One piece for the cookie, two pieces for me..."

For dinner we followed our tradition. Sesame Chicken (and sparkling juice to drink) by candlelight. Olivia loved the candlelight part!


We ended our "Day of Love" by leaving our neighbor's Valentine cookies on their doorstep by doorbell ditching them also. I'll have to find a better hiding spot for my two little kiddo's next year though because they were spotted.

Olivia's question for the day: "How come Heavenly Father created Valentine's Day?"

Random Stuff

Olivia has been drawing various pictures of the new baby lately. I thought this one was pretty cute. She is teaching her little sister to dance.

Olivia got to bring home her own volcano from a science class she's been participating in. Can you tell that she thought it was so cool?

Carter in the bathroom + a very quiet house = trouble! That would be lotion all over the place.

While we were in Georgia last month, we had a decent family picture taken at Grandpa Bill's house.



Carter was bound and determined to ride his bike and scooter down the icy/snowy driveway.



*We did try our canned chicken. It was delicious! Very tender and tasty. I will definitely be canning more. I may even like it better than Costco's canned chicken.

*Olivia got the name, Clarabelle, from the cow on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

*Olivia's first pet, Skittles the fish, died a short five days after being welcomed into our house. The next day, we welcomed Rainbow (another Betta fish) into our house. He died seven days later. The most frustrating thing is hearing what the professional "fish man" says about Betta's: "Betta's live in mud holes in Japan, they are very hearty fish." Well, thank you Mr. Fish man, that makes me feel so much better. NOT!

*After Olivia decided to name her second fish, Rainbow, she turned to Aaron and asked him if that was a good name for a boy. Aaron and I looked at each other and grinned. He then told her that it was a good name for a boy FISH.

Snow Days '09

Fairfield is on their fourth snow day this week. I know, I don't have any kids in school and so really it means nothing to me. Actually, Aaron is in school this quarter though and so he's had some snow days this week too. Since he can help take care of kids in between studying, I've been more productive this week!

Aaron and I used some of our Christmas money to buy a canner. Since chicken was on sale this week, we stocked up and used the canner for the first time. Hope it tastes better than it looks! We used this method to can it. So easy.

After having the fabric to make capes in my basement for over six months, I finally got them done!


Carter loves pretending he's Super Why.



I also repaired Olivia's first pair of holey jeans.



And of course, we played in the snow

and ice.

Oh, I also made some yummy Italian herb bread.

(I can still say that I made it if all I did was throw it in the breadmaker, right?)

1 1/4 c. + 2 T water

3 T olive oil

3-4 T honey

2 t salt

3 T powdered milk

2 c. wheat flour

2 c. white flour

4 t gluten

1 T dried Italian seasoning

1/4 c. parmesan cheese
1/4 c. potato flakes

2 1/4 t active dry yeast

Makes a 2 lb. loaf

Push Start - French Cycle ;)

Thanks for the recipe Kari.