Friends!

We are loving that it is feeling like summertime. And we are loving the friends we get to enjoy it all with.

Baseball has begun! Nothing feels like summer than sitting out at a baseball park. We went to a Bees baseball game with the Youngs and had a great time together. It wasn't so summery - we took blankets and sweatshirts, but it was nice. They have girls the same ages as ours and now are having a baby boy! Perfect! Best Friends Forever!
Last weekend was the Living Traditions Festival. This is honestly our favorite! It is one event in Utah that you really will find A LOT of diversity. There is dancing, crafts and music from all different countries. This is all good and all, but I will be completely honest in saying that we went both Friday and Saturday evenings all because of the THE FOOD!!! It is wicked awesome. In our two nights we had a sampling of food from the following (and proud of it!): Sudan, Bosnia, Bolivia, Tibet, Scotland, Tonga, Thailand, Lebanon, El Salvador, and Italy. Delicious! We met up with our friends Gilbert, Jenny and their kids. They have two boys about our girls ages. We watched a FANTASTIC concert together and the kids (and dads) danced like crazy. Brie got in trouble over and over for lifting up her dress too much as she danced. Geesh! She really got into it! To start off Memorial Day weekend we got to go with two other families, again with small kids like ours, to a cabin up the canyon. Greg and Cindy invited us all to join them! Yea!!! There were six adults and nine kids under the age of 6. Awesome. It was so fun. We had a spaghetti dinner the first night and then tried to put the kids to bed. They were all lined up in sleeping bags in one big room. It took them awhile but finally the jumping, running, yelling and playing stopped and they crashed. We played games until far too late and then at 5 am the guys got up to go running! I know. Yikes! The three guys (Scott, Greg and Ryan) having been training together for months to run a marathon in July. They did a 16 mile run down the canyon that morning! Amazing. I'm sure it was beautiful. They reported seeing two big moose, a porcupine, a snake and deer.

When they got back they were still up for (with a lot of moaning) a hike with all the kids. We hiked around Silver Lake because it is an easy, flat walk and stroller accessible. Well, not when it's still winter up there. The stroller on icy, snowy hills that went straight into an icy lake was a little freaky. We all made it!The Thorntons, Koelikers and Buchanans.Good times. Looking forward to more!

Preschool & Playgroup

It turned out that this month I was in charge of both a preschool day and a playgroup day. Today was playgroup, so they are both now done. Yea! They were both very fun days and here are the pictures to show it.

Preschool: We have a small, little group that we do "Joy School" with every other week. I really like the lessons of Joy School. They are really fun for this age when they just need to be playing. My day was "The Joy of The Earth". We had made little "view finders" the week before and we made "bug motels" that day. We took both and went on a nature walk. We walked on a trail through the park and pointed out birds, clouds, trees, sky, dogs, etc. Everything we saw.

We came upon some dandelions, so they picked them and blew them. Brie is modeling the use of the view finder.
Then we found an ant hill. Poor, poor ants. They were busily working and then got buried in and stomped on by these kids.
We made it to the top of the hill and played "duck, duck, goose" and then laid back to see the shapes the clouds made in the sky. I saw a dragon. We then rolled or tried to roll down a huge hill.We made it to the playground and had a picnic of fruits and vegetables that come from nature: kiwi, pineapple, grapes, zucchini, carrots, cucumbers.
Ava's mouth "stuffed" with one little grape.
Playgroup: Today was playgroup. We do playgroup every other week with the moms and kids from church. It is so fun every time. The moms do such a great job, all the kids come and we are always looking forward to it. Today the theme was "Once Upon A Time".

The kids all came dressed up in costumes of princesses, pirates, cowboys, super heroes, etc. Whatever they wanted. I had Disney Princess music playing hoping for a little dance party, but they all went straight to playing.We then did our crafts. The girls decorated princess crowns with LOTS of stick on jewels and the boys made noodle swords. It was then time to eat. I made two big fruit pizzas. Nice lunch, huh? They were yummy.Then we broke out the bubbles. We had lots of little bubbles and big bubbles being blown by moms and then each of the kids got a bottle to blow bubbles. Lots of bubbles and lots of bubble soap spilled out on the grass. It will be interesting to see what happens when the sprinklers come on.The chalk came out, the swing sets were a hit and everyone just played.And the highlight of it all . . . Brie finally got her hands on Natalie's Snow White costume. One happy girl.

It's A Boy!

We went to our ultrasound this morning fully expecting to discover that baby #3 was another girl. The doctor showed us the brain, the skull, the spine, the heart, heart chambers, the stomach, the bladder . . . . and then, finally, to our utter shock and amazement . . . . a boy!!! He gave us a very good view and it is definitely a boy! I started crying, Scott started crying and we both are SO INCREDIBLY excited.

Brie, Ava and I went to the store and bought him his first Red Sox onsies (well, he will be born during the World Series) and then sat outside with a blizzard from Dairy Queen to celebrate. Scott is at work, but still crying. I am overjoyed that Scott gets to have a son.

Now we'll just need name ideas. Please help.

Boy or Girl?

Tomorrow (Monday) morning we have our ultrasound to find out if baby #3 is a boy or girl. We can't wait to know. I am also soooooooooo excited to see that all is well and developed normally with this baby. I love getting the reassurance that the heart looks good and the brain looks good and the spine looks good, etc.

My thoughts on the gender: I have no idea. I have no feeling one way or the other. This pregnancy has been almost exactly the same as the last two. I am curious to know, because I just can't guess.

Girl: If it is a girl I will feel totally relieved. I have the name (Kate Susan), the clothes, the sisters to play with, the girly toys, the room ready, etc. I know how to do girls and I really like them. They are probably more drama and emotions, but they play so sweetly and delicately. I think though, we would be sad to think we might not get a boy.

Boy: We (Scott especially) would be so excited to have a boy. I've heard wonderful and fun things about having a little boy around. My nervousness comes from the fact that I've never thought of a boy name that I would really want to use, it would be a TOTALLY new experience and I'm afraid for the rough and rowdy play of boys. I know the last one might be silly, but my girls really do let me keep my house pretty clean, picked up, not broken, etc. and I like that.

We will see. And we'll let you know!

Walk for Cystic Fibrosis

This morning we went to Wheeler Farm for the Great Strides walk for Cystic Fibrosis. We thought it was a real 5k that Scott would run, but really it was a lovely 5k stroll through the trees and over bridges and along the river and through the farm, etc. It was a beautiful 70 degree day. It was great! They have the walk as part of the "May Fair" at Wheeler Farm, so there was so much fun stuff going on. There were three live bands, dancers, a craft fair, bounce houses and more. With the walk we lucked out with them giving us a free breakfast, then the nice stroll, then a free lunch from Road House and Brie came home with a whole bag of free loot that she was thrilled about (hand sanitizer, chapstick, bandaids, sunscreen, laundry detergent, etc.) The walk was definitely worth the party they throw.

Our nephew has CF and gets to do the walk in New York with his family tomorrow. We hope they have as much fun as we did and we are so glad we got to feel like we were participating with them in this. Love to the New York Buchanans.The girls riding in their "chariot" eating the Creamies they passed out. Tough 5k eh?
Craft fair where I got some wicked cool necklaces and earrings.
The Bee! Ava was petrified. We met up with our good friend Trisha, her son Laird and more of her family. They were walking for Trisha's cousin. They made it a lot more fun.
The end. A good lunch from Road House.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was quite the day - busy and wonderful! It didn't start with breakfast in bed, it started with me heading straight to the kitchen and busily working to check things off of my list. The night before was spent planning Sharing Time and cutting out construction paper to prepare a craft for the Primary to make for their mothers. My first thought was, shouldn't Mother's Day be relaxing and I be pampered all day? I soon changed my tune. I really did love Mother's Day.

Scott made me exactly what I wanted for breakfast. Waffles with fresh strawberries, bananas and whip cream. Absolutely delicious!He also gave me a BEAUTIFUL arrangement of flowers that Brie picked out. She picked them out for me AND FOR HER.Scott surprised me with just what I wanted for a Mother's Day gift - a patio set. Yeah!! I think I've wanted this for 3 years now. Pictures to come. I'm thrilled and can't wait to have meals (that Scott grills) outside on the deck.

A happy moment was when everything on my "to do before church" list was completed, the girls had been bathed and dressed by Scott and we were all ready (with no rushing or yelling) to go to church on time. Hooray!

The BEST was that at church (by the way, Mother's Day should not be on Sunday if you are Mormon) all the men took over all of the women's callings. Sooooooooooooooooooo . . . can you believe it? Scott took over the Primary! He conducted, he did Sharing Time, he made a craft with the kids for their mothers. And I got to sit back, with Ava in nursery and Brie in Primary, and enjoy Sunday School and Relief Society! It was amazing. The best gift he could have given me. It really was so nice and I appreciated him so much.

Each child made a few lilies of different colors. The lilies were made by cutting out a tracing of their hands.
As soon as we got home from church, we got all the food in the oven and set the table for Scott's family (mom, dad, Brian, Rachel and kids) to come over for Mother's Day dinner. It was so fun to have them. We had parmesan breaded chicken, red potatoes, asparagus, tomatoes, rolls and strawberry shortcake for dessert. Delicious!

Of course, having family over for dinner made the day more busy, but I really was so happy to do it. I love having a dinner party. I have plenty of nice days with just Scott and the girls, I was happy to celebrate the day with Scott's family and especially to cook dinner for his mom. I LOVE his mom. She is the perfect example of a good mother. She works hard to serve all of us always, she has raised sons to be exceptional fathers and husbands and she shows us so much love. Happy Mother's Day to her.
And then Scott cleaned it ALL up!While I did this (because I couldn't get a hold of my own mother). The perfect end to a truley wonderful day! I love being a mother and am so grateful for the opportunity! It is a hard job, but it's exactly what I want to be doing. I love my two little girls and am thrilled for number three to join us. I hope all of you had a nice Mother's Day as well.