Getting Ready!

Only a few more days until we become a family of five...and I'm definitely ready!  We've been having tons of fun, but I've also been having LOTS of contractions and the end-of-pregnancy discomfort has definitely set in.  I'm really looking forward to not being pregnant anymore, but even more than that, I can't wait to meet this little guy!!  He's been one active kid and is constantly rolling & kicking and reminding me that he's still in there.  I thought both the girls were active in my belly, but this little boy makes them seem calm.  Let's hope that doesn't mean we're about to have a little tornado on our hands!  However, tornado or not, I can't wait to hold him in my arms and look at his sweet little face.  Only 3 days to go!

Time has been flying by lately and we've been keeping busy.  This weekend we went to dinner with our good friends & neighbors Melinda & Virginia to celebrate Makenna's birthday.  We always have such a wonderful time with them and the girls love their adopted "Aunts".  We also had a super fun weekend hanging out with great friends.  Nate had a "Man Night" with a few of his law school buddies to celebrate their upcoming graduation.  That same night, my cute friends Teresa & Stacia's husbands kidnapped my girls and let the three of us girls have a fantastic girls night.  Then the next night we had dinner with our three families with great food and even better company.  Spending time with such wonderful people makes me sad for our upcoming move.  We have SO many incredible friends and neighbors here that we will miss terribly.  I'm just glad we're squeezing in a lot of play time with them before we go!  Today was a beautiful day (78 degrees beautiful!) and I met my other amazing friends Chelsea & Christie at the park for a picnic and playdate.  See how spoiled I am?  Unfortunately I didn't exactly realize how warm it was going to be & I dressed my poor daughters in long sleeve shirts and pants.  They were sweltering hot so I went white-trash style and let them play without shirts on. :)  Unfortunately I had also forgotten sunscreen so we all ended up a bit "pink".  Sorry girls!  After a few hours at the park, we headed to Christie's and she gave me a fabulous haircut.  Man I love that girl!  While we were in the bathroom getting all beautified, the kiddos did some salon treatments of their own...in the mud.  At one point Kenna came in with Chelsea's flip-flops & Christie's gardening gloves on.  She had a paintbrush in hand and said that Carter & Mac were making paint (translation: pouring water in the dirt) for her so that she could paint the fence - and the kids.  That's what happens when the moms are busy doing other things!  Glad they were at least having a good time!

Another fun thing we got to do this weekend was watch Nate play in the LBA's (Law Basketball Association) All-Star game!  The University of Oregon law school has a basketball league that Nate has been playing in twice a week for the past 3 years.  It's pretty intense with captains, a "draft", playoffs etc.  This year Nate's team didn't do so hot (basically he & his good buddy Zac made up the whole team), but both of them were chosen to be All-Stars, so at least his LBA career ended on a good note. :)  During the game the girls kept yelling "GO DAD!"  He definitely had his own cute cheerleading squad!  The Harris' and our family hung out at the game together and then went out for ice-cream afterward.  What a fun night!  There's definitely not much I'm going to miss about law school, but fun nights like that with great friends will definitely be missed! 

Well now I'm on to some serious "prepping" for this baby to come.  Due to our home-selling status, we haven't gotten out a single baby thing & I'm feeling a little overwhelmed.  Thankfully my sweet mom comes in on Wednesday!  I can't wait to see her and our little boy in just a few days!

At Roaring Rapids with Melinda & Virginia

They have an old merry-go-round there that the girls absolutely LOVE!

 They brought special cupcakes for Kenna's b-day that had frog rings on top of them.  Here they are showing off their stylin' new jewelry

 After dinner Nate & I spoiled ourselves with early birthday presents...hiking backpacks we found for a super great deal at Costco!!  We can't wait to use them this summer.  Nate was like a little kid on Christmas when we brought them home.  He had to immediately get out our tent, sleeping bags & his hatchet to see how they fit. :)  Utah mountains, here we come!

 Nate in lucky #14.  Way to be an All-Star babe!

 This is what the kids did for the entire game...RUN!

 Kenna, Carter, Mac & Sage having a ball at the park

The Haircut

...and the fun it produced -
 My muddy Makenna!

Oh what a mess!

I just came across these photos in my phone and was reminded of the wonderful fun that occasionally comes along with having a 2 & 3 year old.  It all happened on a beautiful day in March.  I got the girls settled playing in the playroom and did a quick workout and then hopped in the shower.  I thought for sure they'd stay entertained and busy for an hour...and boy did they ever!  When I went to check on them, this is what I found:

Notice anything missing...oh wait, yes, every single toy they own!

 And then I looked in the closet...

Guess how long that mess took to clean up?  Definitely longer than the hour break it gave me!  To be honest, I'm not even sure how long it was.  I took these pictures on my phone so I could send them to Nate because I was a little overwhelmed. :)  I had something going that night so he told me to shut the door and he and the girls would clean it up when he got home.  What a wonderful husband I have!

And honestly...this picture doesn't do the mess justice.  They had dumped out every single puzzle box (try matching those back up!), the memory game pieces, dollhouse accessory boxes, play food....you name it, it was sitting in that gigantic heap.  When you've got kids, sometimes you have to just laugh to keep from crying!

Big Changes Ahead!

Well, I guess I should have posted about this a while ago…but things have been a little busy around here! 

The big news?  We’re moving to Utah!  This decision has been months and months in the making, but now we’re anxious and excited to make the transition.  The whole first part of this year has been somewhat of an emotional roller-coaster trying to plan for our future.  We’d think for sure we were staying here, then settle on heading back to Utah and back and forth a hundred times.  With that came excitement of being back by family again, followed by sadness of leaving our home & friends and the Oregon we’ve grown to love…followed by anticipation, then disappointment and then just plain frustration at the unknown of where in the world we would end up!  I’m sure the pregnancy hormones didn’t help much in this process, but it was a wild time for me and by the end, I just wanted to know what we were doing so I could have something to prepare for!  I think Nate felt the same way.  When a pretty concrete job offer here in Eugene fell through at the last minute, we quickly turned in an application for the Utah BAR and our plans were set.  It still feels bittersweet as we truly will miss our Oregon home and have made so many amazing friends that will be hard to leave behind.  However, we look forward to being near both of our families and back to the home we know and love so well.  I think at heart I’ve always been a Utah girl! 

Unfortunately, along with the big move comes a lot of craziness!  In a short 2 month time-period we have to get our house ready to sell, put it on the market, have a baby and a graduation, pack up our house and move.  I can’t say I’m terribly excited about moving 3-weeks post c-section and with a newborn, but with the support of our amazing friends and family who have already offered so much, I’m sure we will survive!  We’ve already started prepping the girls for the move and it’s been really fun to see their enthusiasm.  I don’t think they necessarily realize that they won’t get to see this house or their friends anymore, but the thought of frequent visits with their grandparents and cousins has them as excited as can be!  Just about every day they ask if today’s the day we can move to Utah.  We’ve had to continually go over all the things that have to happen before then.  First it was Easter, then Makenna’s birthday, then Bridger’s birthday (we’re pretty sure that will be his name!), then daddy’s graduation, THEN we can move to Utah. :)  It’s also cute to see the things that they are concerned about.  Makenna is frequently lost in thought and then asking things like, “Will we take my clock with us when we move?”  No matter how many times we tell her everything in our whole house gets to come with us, she’s always concerned that something might get left behind.  Also, whenever we’ve told her that we need to keep the house clean so that somebody will come look at it and want to buy it, she gets teary eyed and says something like, “But then I won’t have a bedroom anymore”.  Moving must be a crazy idea in the eyes of a child!  It definitely takes a lot of prepping and reassuring on the part of the parents.  (Although I’m sure when all is said and done and we’re settled in Utah, she won’t have a care in the world.)  Oh to be a kid again!

Anyway, the actual moving date is set for Sunday May 20^th.  Nate has graduation on Saturday May 19^th and BAR prep in Utah starts on Monday the 21^st, so the date was chosen mostly by default.  That is going to be one busy week!  We are going to pack up the truck on Friday night and stay in a hotel for graduation.  Then poor Nate has a 12-hour drive in one day and has to get ready to start the rigors of BAR prep the next morning.  Ouch!  Luckily I’ll have the support of family to help with the kids & getting settled in so at least he won’t have that on his shoulders as well.  Yep, definitely going to be a crazy couple months!  Then on to our next adventures…  Wish us luck!

Celebrating our Favorite Four Year-Old!

What a day yesterday was!  We were celebrating from morning to night and it was a blast.  Makenna woke up to balloons filling the hallway outside of her room and she absolutely loved it.  When she went downstairs to find more, including some taped to her chair, she thought it was the greatest thing ever.  I love how easily pleased 4 year-olds are!  We made a special breakfast of French toast sticks, eggs and fruit while Kenna talked on Skype to Grandma & Grandpa Wolfley and opened her presents from them.  Part of their present was a desk/whiteboard which has been the source of hours and hours of entertainment in the past 2 days.  The girls LOVE it!  After breakfast Kenna opened one of her presents from Nate & I – a princess vanity piano that was an equally big hit!  Now the question is where we are going to put these two new *large* editions to the girls’ toy collection.  (Didn’t think of that when we bought them!) :) 

That afternoon we had her birthday party!  We did it at a local gymnastics place and it turned out so fun.  We had 10 kids (5 girls & 5 boys) and they had the whole place to themselves to bounce, flip and run for an hour.  Then we sat down for pizza, presents and cake.  The best part?  The kids had a blast and I didn’t have to entertain, plan, set-up or clean-up!  A HUGE bonus when you’re 38 weeks pregnant. :)  I think Makenna loved every minute of it and that made it especially fun for Nate & I.  When we got home, we were all pretty whipped.  We ate a second pizza dinner (we didn’t have much time to eat during the party) and tried to regroup for a minute.  Then the girls got on Skype with Grandma & Grandpa Evans & Makenna got to open more presents!  What a lucky little girl!  You can imagine it was a little difficult getting those girls to bed with so many fun new toys around.  I thought they’d crash from the exhausting day, but I guess the excitement of new toys trumps all tiredness.  Wish that worked for me!  After we finally did get them to sleep, it was all Nate & I could do to clean up before we crashed into bed, too.  However, the endless smiles on Makenna’s face made it all worth it.  She is such a sweet girl and it was so fun having a whole day to celebrate her & make her feel special.  We love our Makenna!

Because yesterday was so busy, the celebration ended up spilling over to today.  She got cookies from her Sunbeam teachers (which made her whole day!) and after dinner we finally got to eat her birthday cake (we only had time for cupcakes at the birthday party).  The girls have continued to be totally entertained by all the fun new toys Kenna got & I have been so proud of the way she is willing to share everything with Sage.  You wouldn’t know that the toys didn’t belong to both of them.  Makenna got a package of 2 chapsticks from her cute friend Bella and she immediately gave one of them to Sage.  Sage’s lasted about 10 seconds before it had been sucked on & dug into by her little fingers, but what do you expect from a 2 year-old?!  Makenna insisted on bringing hers to church, so I agreed that she could.  However, she got to give the scripture in Sharing Time and when she came up for me to help her read it, I realized she had sparkles surrounding her entire mouth, almost down to her chin!  She was very excited and maybe a bit over-zealous with the application of that chapstick.  So cute though!

Happy Birthday Makenna!  I hope you loved every minute of it!

Just before breakfast Sage said she had to go to the bathroom.  Little did we know she took one of the dry erase markers in with her.  It did seem a little TOO quiet for a little TOO long.  This was the outcome:

 

After that we had a nice chat about where the markers are to be used. :)

The PARTY!!

 The party crew: Alia Watts, Jack Wilson, Logan Johnson, Keadon Johnson, Makenna, Bella Stockdale, Carter Harris, Mac Belton & Sage (missing Juliet Hallock in this picture)

 Kenna said she wanted a chocolate chip cake with cookies on top...so we compromised & did a party chip giant cupcake with oreo's crushed on top.  She loved it!

 Mom & Dad with our big birthday girl!

 Sage wanted in on the action, too!

 Then Kenna wanted a turn with the camera.  I think she's becoming a pretty good photographer!

 Finally getting to eat the cake on Sunday night

What a beautiful four year old!

Happy Birthday Makenna!

Today this little cutie turns FOUR! 

Oh how the time flies!  She is such a happy, smart, caring and energetic little girl and I don't know what we would do without her.  She is sunshine in our home!  We love you SO much Makenna.  Happy birthday princess!

Gonna miss these Rainy Days!

Today was a fabulously rainy day.  I don’t always have that opinion about the rain, but today it was just a plain good time!  After breakfast the girls and I pulled on rain boots and got out our umbrellas for some old fashioned puddle-jumping fun!  (No I did not jump in puddles with my 38-week pregnant belly, but the girls sure enjoyed it!) We spent almost an hour out there, checking out worms, chatting with neighbors (kind of embarrassing in my PJ’s), and splashing away.  Then we headed in to warm the girls up in the bath.  What a fun start to the day!

Fun with my Not-So-Shy daughters

Sage is not shy around strangers...at all.  And it's starting to rub off on Makenna.  Sometimes it's cute, others a bit embarrassing.  I'll let you make your own conclusions about the following comments to completely random people:

At Jiffy Lube to the nice gentleman giving us our car info - Kenna: "Can I tell you something?" Stranger #1: "Sure, what is it?" (crouching down to her level),  Kenna: "My dad said that if I was brave in the tub today I could get a sticker because I'm almost 4, but I cried so I didn't get a sticker.  And he said I can't turn 4 unless I'm brave."

At Old Navy talking to the cashier & pointing to the jar of Ring Pops they have conveniently placed next to the cash register - Sage: "Do you have money to buy one of these for me?  My mom doesn't have any money."  Stranger #2: "Um, I don't have any money for those, but I have a sticker you can have."  Sage: "Well, but do you have money for one of THESE?"  And sadly this conversation happened TWICE with the same guy because I had a question about my receipt the first time & had to check out the second.

At Winco staring at a lady with a large bandage on her face - Kenna: "Mom, why does she have a big bandaid on her face?"  Sage: "Mom, was she bleeding?" (the only time the girls get bandaids...) :)  Lady/Stranger #3 who has (of course) heard the girls talking about her: "Yep, I got a sore on my face"  Sage: "But why is it so BIG?", followed by Kenna: "But what did you DO?"  Okay girls, time for a new isle!

At Costco checking out with some pull-ups - Sage: "These are pull-ups for me!"  Stranger #4: "Yeah, and I see you got princess ones.  How old are you?"  Sage: "I'm 2!"  Kenna:  "And I'm 3, so I don't need pull-ups anymore, but my favorite princess is Belle."  Sage: "And mine is Tangled" (she forgets that her name is actually Rapunzel), Kenna: "And we're going to go to Disneyland, but our jar has to get filled up first, but I got money in my Easter Eggs and we put it in the jar, but it isn't full yet...."  Followed by random thoughts from Sage who then gets overtaken by Kenna talking even louder, followed by Sage throwing in some other tid-bits of information until the poor guy is behind on his cart loading by two shoppers and I have to save him by pushing the girls toward the door as they are still calling out about their favorite princesses.

At the Realtor's office, in the women's restroom - Kenna: "Mom, only girls can go in the girls bathroom, right?", Me: "Yes, that's right", Kenna: "Well how come there's a boy in here?", Me: "There aren't any boys in here", Kenna: "Yeah, look under that door, those are boy shoes, that means there's a boy in there."  And what'dya  say to that one when the bathroom is completely quiet and you know the one other person in there can obviously hear every word your child is saying?!  I'm sure I followed with something like "Okay, well let's get you on the potty..."  Diversion is always the answer.  (Followed by waiting till they're gone before coming out of your stall!)

This is all within the past week.  Maybe I should stop taking them on errands with me. :)

Happy Easter!

What a fabulous day we had today.  The Easter Bunny did not disappoint, and neither did Makenna & Sage with their infectious enthusiasm!  They were more than excited to hunt for their eggs and kept that happy attitude all day.  It was so fun watching them squeal as they found the “tricky” eggs and even more fun watching their excitement as they opened them.  The Easter Bunny put candy in most of the eggs, but filled quite a few with money as well.  To our surprise, after Makenna realized there was money in some of the eggs, she seemed rather disappointed in the candy eggs and would get super excited to find one filled with coins.  What kind of 3 year-old does that?  Actually she was mostly excited about it so that she could put all the money in our “Disneyland Jar”, which means a trip when it gets all filled up. :) 

We also started a fun tradition this year of doing the “12 Eggs of Easter”.  I put together 12 eggs with small trinkets representing some part of the true Easter story (Christ’s last days, crucifixion and resurrection).  We hid those eggs in a separate room and after the “Bunny eggs” were all done, we started over on a hunt for the other eggs and then sat down and talked about Christ’s sacrifice for us, opening each egg in order.  I had several pictures to help tell the story as well, but little did we know the effects the crucifixion would have on a 2 year-old.  Sage is still a little traumatized and I think the only thing she learned from that entire lesson is that Jesus got a nail through is hands and feet.  (The small nail in one of the eggs and the picture of Christ on the cross didn’t help!)  We kept reassuring her that that would never happen to her (she kept saying “I don’t want a sharp thing in my hands!), and that Jesus was okay because even after he died he was resurrected and got his body back.  But it was to no avail…that’s all she talked about all day!  Maybe we’ll censor the story a little bit in future years! 

Afterward we went to church and then had a fabulous night together as a family.  Spending time together made me so grateful for Christ’s sacrifice and the knowledge that we can be together forever as a family because of it.  There is no greater gift on earth!  I’m also grateful for the Easter holiday to remind us of that special gift and that it gives us a special opportunity to teach our children about it.  What a special day!

My Beautiful Easter Girls!

(Did I mention that it is extremely hard to get these girls to sit still & smile for a picture?  These took some serious time, effort & bribery to get...and they still are a little goofy! But I love 'em anyway!)

 I'm sure it didn't help that it was super sunny outside!

On the hunt!