The CAKE

So I asked Amy a while ago what kind of cake she would like for her birthday thinking I would get a reply like, "Chocolate," or maybe "Pink." But instead she said, "Ariel cake!" So I searched for some options and I decided to ask my friend Teandra to help me out. Teandra likes to make cakes and so she picked one out for us to imitate ours after. We got a late start on decorating the cake and we were up until 2:15am before we decided we were done. I had a great time with Teandra, and working with the fondant. But I don't know if I'll ever do it again! I don't want to be up that late, especially the day before my child's birthday! But Amy loved her cake, and couldn't wait to eat it, so it was worth it!
Wonderful, wonderful Teandra-- couldn't have done this cake without her! (I wouldn't have done this cake without her)!

The chef's: (ignore my sleepy eyes)

And me:

Birthday beginnings

Sarah and Dylan left town on Wednesday so they brought over birthday gifts for Amy before leaving. She was a very grateful recipient and gave great hugs as thanks. Amy LOVES the Iddings family and thinks she can go to their house anytime she wants. They gave her a cute, cute dress and a Rapunzel Barbie doll.
Loving the dress:

I love that I captured this adorable smile on Elliot's face!

With the dress already on and showing off her new barbie:

Building a nest

Adelynne was watching "Sid the Science Kid" on Tuesday morning which was about animals and the different homes they live in. The science project on the show was the children making a birds nest out of sticks, leaves, glue, and paper. Adelynne asked me if we could build a nest and I said okay but not right then because it wasn't even 9am yet, and I was not ready to go outside. So in the meantime, Adelynne made an instructions booklet of how to make a nest. Each page had a picture of the supplies we needed. Page 1: a picture of a piece of paper. Page 2: a picture of sticks and leaves. Page 3: A picture of glue on the sticks and leaves. I should have gotten a picture of the booklet, sorry. But I did get pictures of the nest making.





And one of Amy...

Proof that she can ride

So here are so pictures of Adelynne actually riding her bike. These were taken on April 20th, six days after she rode by herself. She can now start by herself and has ridden her bike to her preschool and back on two different days. She still needs to work on using her breaks to completely stop herself, she tends to use them to slow her down a bit and then puts her feet down, or she'll just go until the wall stops her. But she's pretty much a pro at it now!

Bug bowl aftermath

Dustin took the girls to Purdue's annual Spring Fest this year. Each year, Spring Fest hosts their annual bug bowl. They have activities which include crafts and face painting and the bug petting zoo. I was out of town, but they all seemed to enjoy the day anyway. Dustin didn't take any pictures until they got home, so this is what we all get.

Because Amy is just cute

Well, she just is! And so is Adelynne! I guess this day I just took a lot of pictures of Amy.

One of Amy's favorite activities: collecting sticks and sorting them. Its even better that her shoes are on the wrong feet.

Sisters! Amy is stick collecting and Adelynne is looking for lady bugs to put in the egg carton.

On a drive, I love that smile!

We went to the zoo.... in March

So back in March we took another trip to the zoo, and this time our friends Nate, Doreen, Aubree, and Sabrina came along. It was a blast, one of our best zoo trips! Adelynne and Amy loved sharing the day with their good friends, and even though it was a little cold that day, the animals were very active and a lot of fun to see.

This one was a dog shark in the shark petting exhibit. We have been several times to this exhibit and never seen a shark behave in this way, it was kind of scary. You can see from the picture that he isn't out of the water very far, but he would pop up on his tail and swim sideways along the edge of the pool to stare at us. It was neat to see!

The girls staring in admiration at something

Sylvia, (the little girl I watch during the week), came along with us to the zoo. At the shark pool she just wanted to jump in and swim with the sharks.

The polar bear was awake! He was even "talking" to us and pacing back and forth. (I think it may have been feeding time).

We told the girls that the bear wanted to eat them for lunch! They laughed.

We saw lots more of course, but these were all the pictures I took. The rhinos were also fun to see as they were running around and charging each other with their noses. We saw the elephants being taken on a walk around the zoo, and then later take a big elephant dump in its enclosure (the girls were very entertained by that)! It seemed that all of the animals liked the coolness in the air, except the baboons. They were huddled together in the alcove of the rocks looking miserable.

Flip Flops

This was a hat Adelynne made that she wanted me to take a picture of, she was very proud of her work. And no, that is not a scribble on the top, those are the clouds:


And these were some flip flops that my friend Teandra decorated for Adelynne. I did the other pair on Amy's feet (see below picture). I went over to my friend Joni's house and the three of us crafted for hours, it was a fun evening that I hope we can repeat again!

Holidays

Here's some photos from the last three holidays, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, and Easter. I'm just trying to do a quick catch up from all the photos and events that have happened:

This was a Valentine's Party we had at Dylan's house. He sure is lucky to have all these girl friends!

Here is Amy enjoying a chocolate after her nap on Sunday:

Adelynne helped me make all of these chocolates, it was lots of fun to do with her.

St. Patrick's Day:

The girls and I decorated these Easter eggs while Dustin was at the Priesthood Session of General Conference. They were a lot of fun to color and put together. Sadly, this is the only picture I took at all on Easter weekend.

She's growing up!

On Sunday Adelynne announced to Dustin and I that she wanted to ride a bike with a front wheel and a back wheel. I asked her if she meant that she wanted to take off her training wheels and she said yes. I told her it would be hard to learn, but she said without hesitation that she would practice. So, Dustin took off the training wheels Sunday night while I was gone to choir practice, and Adelynne had her first lesson. On Monday, I helped Adelynne ride her bike to preschool, which is around the corner from us. That was tough! I could tell she still needed some work on the balancing part. Our neighbor Christy even helped Adelynne practice a little after she got home from school. And then she practiced some more with Dustin too. Yesterday, she didn't practice at all. And most of the day today was gone when I asked Dustin to practice with her before it was bedtime since she didn't do anything yesterday. Dustin got Adelynne on her bike right away and within minutes he was hollering at me to watch. And Adelynne did it! She rode quite a distance without any help several times. When I saw her face she was just smiling so much and laughing with pride. It just made my heart leap to see her learn such a "big girl" thing. Its one of those milestones that your child accomplishes and you know they are growing up. I am so happy and proud of Adelynne for wanting to learn and then doing it. I thought it would take her one or two weeks before she got the hang of riding without the training wheels. When she is determined she can accomplish it.

Let the gardening begin

Today I went and payed for our rented garden plot and tonight "as a family" we went and began the process of preparing our plot for gardening. Before leaving the apartment, that all to frequently asked question was asked, "Does anyone need to go to the bathroom before we go?" A chorus of "No" was the reply. So we all headed out with Dustin pulling the wagon full of our little gardeners. We got out to our plot and looked it over and within minutes Amy is doing a desperate potty dance accompanied by threatening screams of "I have to go potty!" But there was no time to even let her squat down on the grass. Aaah, crisis number 1. Then about 10 or 15 minutes go by and Adelynne cries out, "I have to go potty!" Ugh! She throws a tantrum because she doesn't want to go home to go potty. She would rather squat in the grass and pee. But no, I won't hear of it because she is 4 and 1/2 years old and can get home to pee! So Dustin took her home and solved that crisis, #2, and he also brought back clean underwear for Amy. So now, both girls are taken care of and Dustin and I really begin the fence putting up, and the soil raking. The girls run off to the nearby playground and within a few minutes Amy is screaming at the top of her lungs for mommy. I can see her in plain view, just standing on the bottom rung of the ladder. So I head over wondering what the problem is, and when I arrive I notice that she has peed down her legs, again! I thought she had taken care of that on the first crisis! Double Ugh. I marched her over to the grass next to our plot and sat her down, then I went looking for her missing shoes (because she ALWAYS takes them off). I found them and returned them to her and then made her wait there, yes, in her wet panties, until we were done with SOMETHING. As we were heading home Dustin said, "Well, at least it can only be better the next time." I sure hope so!

Conversations in the car

Adelynne: Mom, what's going to happen when there is no more earth?

Me: There will always be an earth. Heavenly Father will always give us an earth to live on.

Amy: But Jesus isn't here.

Me: But He will come again, and when He does its going to be wonderful, like a great big birthday party!

Amy: Jesus doesn't have stuff for us. Santa has stuff for us.

Thinking and pondering going on for a minute or so. Then....

Adelynne: Does Santa have shoes?

Me: Yes, Santa has shoes. Jesus has shoes too when he needs them.

I LOVE my girls.

For my sister

For old time's sake:


Just because of the tuba


And the all time classic ending:

I love you, Amy!

Pregnancy update

Warning: if you don't like feminine details you may not want to read this post.

Its been a crazy couple of days! On Tuesday I hit 14 weeks, and I went to visit my doctor. He did the normal check up by measuring me and listening to the baby's heartbeat and everything was great. Tuesday night came and I had a slight headache and I was very tired so I decided to skip out on volleyball-- that is a BIG deal for me! I watched some olympics but ended up falling asleep throughout the coverage so I finally went to bed. Just after 5:30am I woke up when I felt that my underwear was wet. I was thinking to myself, "Did I went myself in my sleep?" I was trying to remember if I had one of those dreams where I was sitting on the toilet and thinking it was real, but it wasn't, but I couldn't recall any such dream. Anyway, I got up to go to the bathroom and turned on the light. When I sat on the toilet I realized that my underwear was all bloody. I began to panic. I was peeing and I thought I felt a blood clot pass and when I wiped there was blood, and when I stood up and looked in the toilet it was bright red. I sat back down on the toilet because I couldn't handle the sight of the blood and what it might mean. I hollered for Dustin and he came stumbling into the bathroom. I immediately asked Dustin to give me a priesthood blessing, which he did. I hung to the words he said, praying they would be true, asking the Lord for the faith I needed to believe him when he said I would be able to carry the baby. After the blessing I dressed and laid down on the couch and asked Dustin to find the number for the ER. Then I thought to call the number for my doctor's office and I talked to an after hours nurse and she said she would contact my doctor and he would call me back in a few minutes. I hung up the phone, cried in Dustin's arms, and then we went and laid back down in our bed and waited. The phone never rang. When I went to the bathroom just before 8am there was no more blood. But I decided to call my doctor's office again. I was more descriptive of what had happened and they immediately set me up with an ultrasound appointment at 9:30am. As I was laying in bed that early morning, thinking of the worst I was praying that I would be able to handle what the worst would be. I was also thinking of the irony that I was possibly losing my baby the very day my friend was delivering hers. After setting my ultrasound appointment I called on friends to help watch the girls so that Dustin could go with me. Thank you with all my heart! Through all of this ordeal I have definitely felt love and support from so many friends and family. At the ultrasound Dustin and I waited patiently while measurements were taken and then finally the technician let us hear the heartbeat. Dustin later said he wished they had let us hear that at the beginning so that he would have known he wasn't looking at a dead baby. So true! But we did see our baby and heard a strong heartbeat, and even saw the baby moving. What a relief. After all the measurements we talked with a nurse who told me that they did not see any problems on the ultrasound that would have caused all the bleeding, and that our baby was healthy. I was told to go home and to "take it easy." So I did. I laid around on the couch and the bed and barely got up. Meanwhile my wonderful husband took care of the girls and the house. By the end of the day my hips hurt so bad from laying down so much. Around 9:30pm I used the bathroom and saw that I was bleeding some more. I had to use a pad to keep my underwear from getting bloody but, it wasn't really heavy bleeding. I had been told that I didn't need to call unless there was clotting. So I decided to wait it out. During the evening and night I used the bathroom at least 3 times and I was still bleeding. So this morning when I saw that I was still bleeding I called my doctor again and they set up an appointment for me to get checked. I saw a nurse practitioner midwife who did a great job easing my worries. She talked about the details in the ultrasound and how there was nothing in it that looked bad. The baby was healthy and my chances of miscarriage are very slim at this point. She explained that sometimes bleeding occurs during pregnancy without any explanation. She did perform a vaginal exam to see if there was anything visible there that could be the cause, but to no avail. So all my bleeding is unexplained, but I do feel more at ease and reassured that my baby is healthy and all is well. I've still been bleeding on and off throughout the day, so who knows when it will stop. On top of all of this I have developed a cold and upset stomach. A major headache was a huge source of discomfort for me today, on top of intense hip pain. All this laying around and "taking it easy" has caused a lot of pain in my hips, and then I was throwing up tonight from an upset stomach- hopefully not a bug, but I think it might have been. Ugh. Here's to hoping next week will be better! And to end this downer post here is a picture of our little one. Adelynne and Amy were so excited to see these pictures. Adelynne exclaimed, "Amy, that is our baby!" Amy was holding the pictures today and I asked her what she had she said, "The baby in mommy's tummy." They are so excited to be big sisters!

The measurements of the baby they took from the ultrasound actually put me at 13weeks and 1day. But they haven't officially changed my due date yet, I think they will wait until the 20week ultrasound.

Amy's reoccurring dream

Amy woke up from a late nap today in hysterics. I could hear Dustin trying to calm her down and trying to figure out what she was saying. As soon as I heard her saying, "I don't want to be big!" I knew exactly what was going on. She has had this dream before. I knew she was grabbing her fingers with the other hand and crying over and over, "I don't want to be big!" It took her a while to calm down, but when she did she would still pitifully say, "I don't want to be big." I told Dustin that she has had this dream before, and he was quite amazed. Is that weird? One of my thoughts is that maybe her hand had fallen asleep and it feels all swollen and big. (It happens to me when I fall asleep in a bad position).

A few stories

We had our friend Molly over on Saturday and she was so much fun. She and Amy played so well all day long. Late in the day, around 4pm, the girls were tired of being inside. Molly approached Dustin and said in her cute little Molly voice, "I want to go on a walk!" Dustin replied, "Who gave you that idea, did you come up with that on your own?" Molly: "Yes!" Dustin: "Well, what makes you think I'm going to take you on a walk?" Molly: "My momma and Ann went on a walk outside." Dustin: "Do I look like Ann to you?" Molly: "Yes!"

Needless to say we all went outside to play in the slushy snow, and the girls had a blast even though Dustin looks nothing like Ann.

We were driving home from church on Sunday and Amy says, "Somebody hit my nose with the stroller and it was bleeding." Dustin and I are exclaiming how sorry we are and then looking at each other and questioning this story since we didn't hear anything about it when we picked her up from nursery. Then Amy says in the most pitifully cute voice, "My nose was bleeding. Its not pretty anymore." Dustin and I reassured her that she still had a beautiful nose.

Adelynne came home from preschool last week just ecstatic about Minnie coming to her school. I wasn't sure what she was talking about since I knew that her best friend Minnie goes to another preschool and I hadn't heard that she would be going to Adelynne's school. So I questioned her teacher about it on Friday, and her teacher explained to me that a new girl would be coming to their class and her name was Minnie and she was from Korea. So I have been explaining to Adelynne that it wasn't her friend Minnie, but a different one. Today when Adelynne was getting ready for school she said excitedly, "Today I can find out which Minnie is coming to my school!"

Today Amy came out of the bathroom pretty wet and complaining about her tongue hurting. I thought maybe she had bit it. Then I asked her if she made a big mess in the bathroom since she was all wet, and she shyly denied any mess. Then Adelynne asked her loudly if she made a mess in the bathroom as she went to check. Amy quickly ran to the bathroom and said, "No! Don't go in!" I asked Amy again if she made a mess in the bathroom and Amy said, "Yes, but I cleaning it up!" Uh-huh. I go in the bathroom and she has taken a box of powdered soap bubble bath and pretty much dumped it everywhere. She covered up the mess on the floor with a towel and had washed the sink down, but I think in the process had sucked on the wet washcloth covered in the soap and that was why her tongue hurt.

Things that made me happy today:

1. I made it to aerobics and had a good workout.

2. My girls were so cute in their raincoats.

3. The snow melted some more

4. Amy is playing Hullabaloo, and she is so stinkin' cute when she plays this game!

5. My girls have been pretty darn good today, not too much to complain about.

6. I got lots of snuggles from both the girls today.

7. I found out that my friend Sarah is having her baby tomorrow morning!

8. Amy dressed up as batman and superman today at aerobics, while Adelynne wore a pink princess hat and a very pink and sequence covered jacket.

9. My sister-in-law called. It was fun to talk to her.

10. I also called my mom today and talked to her about my day.

For a good laugh...

I saw this commercial on TV last night and it made me laugh. I watched it again today and it still made me laugh. Just click on the link to watch it. I wish I was computer savvy enough to put it directly here on my blog, but alas, I am not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K1YznzxQmw

Reach

How to make your pictures larger...

Just a quick how to.... thanks to Jessica I can share this lesson with you all.

Once you download your picture onto blogger you need to click on the "Edit Html" (in your blog post- there is the "compose" or "edit Html")

The html code for your picture will look similar to this one:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQqBz_DPv-LSfwZyMP2sO-PhD5A3953tLGWM4mXjnqSdZgV3jbdcO44BDo6fIEubNlXiorzym93HvOMDxx812w3m5_PDGXcHCXKrS4GUhy2URlFHLDJzyAMpSLH_tDVfedOvSQ7OL1XlA/s1600-h/IMG_5365.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">height="267"src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQqBz_DPv-LSfwZyMP2sO-PhD5A3953tLGWM4mXjnqSdZgV3jbdcO44BDo6fIEubNlXiorzym93HvOMDxx812w3m5_PDGXcHCXKrS4GUhy2URlFHLDJzyAMpSLH_tDVfedOvSQ7OL1XlA/400/IMG_5365.JPG" width="400" />

All you have to do is change the 400 (the number may be different depending on how large it is-shown in red) to 800. Then delete the width and height (shown in purple-another note, do NOT delete the quotation mark after the height number, also my Html code put the width and height together). After you do that it should look like this:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQqBz_DPv-LSfwZyMP2sO-PhD5A3953tLGWM4mXjnqSdZgV3jbdcO44BDo6fIEubNlXiorzym93HvOMDxx812w3m5_PDGXcHCXKrS4GUhy2URlFHLDJzyAMpSLH_tDVfedOvSQ7OL1XlA/s1600-h/IMG_5365.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQqBz_DPv-LSfwZyMP2sO-PhD5A3953tLGWM4mXjnqSdZgV3jbdcO44BDo6fIEubNlXiorzym93HvOMDxx812w3m5_PDGXcHCXKrS4GUhy2URlFHLDJzyAMpSLH_tDVfedOvSQ7OL1XlA/800/IMG_5365.JPG" />

And then your picture will be BIG :)

I hope it works for all of you. Another note, I don't know if you can enlarge pictures on blogs that don't have the wide setting like my blog does, but try it out and let me know. Good luck!

Bigger Picture

Adelynne is so cute with curls. She looks very similar to Shirley Temple.


Thanks to Jessica for showing me how to enlarge my pictures on my blog!!!