V-day

For V-day I gave Michael this candy graham and then he gave me his present on Wednesday, which were chocolate covered strawberries and a date to the rib & chop house in Cody. It was good besides the episode with the stuffing, but other than that, delish. :) I was so very proud of Stetson this year for signing his name on all 15 valentines he had to deliver for the CRC. When I got the instructions from his teacher I thought no biggie, he can write his name. ..15 times though??? It was a test of patience for mom and Stetson, but he did great! :) My baby bump looks bigger in this pic than I realized it was YIKES! I've been nauseous every day (more so when I'm home because the every day smells get to me) but I feel blessed to be as healthy as I am and to not be throwing up every day. I did my last night of step Feb. 17, which I'm sadder about than I thought I'd be. I was having about 5 every night, but when I'd decided to take a break, I was only getting 1 or 2. I am excited to do something different since step is a lot of wear & tear on my joints, especially my knees & hips. I might start again in fall. Its a great workout and its the best way for me to maintain my weight.

We've had 1 ultra sound which was a while ago, and she couldn't see the sex, which is fine because I want to be surprised! I've started watching a baby story again and getting all giddy when I think about having another bundle of joy. Boy or girl, we will be thrilled.

I got a haircut from Alicia whom I LOVE. I am always so happy when I leave after a haircut from her. She just always makes it cute. Wish I could make it as cute as she does.

Today we went to the farm and watched Stan feed some baby calves he'd been keeping in the shop to keep warm and then we took them back to their moms. After lunch, Michael, the kids and I fed a load of hay to the cows and calves and left for home. Michael's on call tonight :( but we get to have lamb stew with Mildred tonight and we are WAY excited for that. We have so much snow, and it was about 10F today, but every day is a day closer to spring and I am ridiculously excited. I can't wait to see my shasta daisies pop out of the ground again.

Ahhhhh...spring

We got a little tease today of spring weather. On our way home from church it was forty something, but I bet its fifty something now. Ahhh feels soo so so good. Kandace and I went on a walk around the block(after I shook the frozen snow chunks off the stroller) and then they both came out and tromped in the puddles and snow thats piled high on the lawn. It felt amazing to sit on my porch with the sun shining on my face while my kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves in this beautiful weather. I LOVE spring and summer. Seasons are great and I suppose I'm grateful for the winter so you can appreciate the warmth.

Kandace's big day!

Yesterday (2.10.11) was Kandace's 2nd birthday! 3 of her favorite things are water, pizza and cows so we incorporated all 3 by going to the Powell Aquatic center (which was way fun for the kids), pizza hut and then home for cow cake and icecream with our awesome family.

I have to remind myself sometimes amidst the potty training, sticky fingers and tantrums that this girl is a blessing beyond belief. I felt almost overwhelmed today as I was hugging her, taking it all in, having one of those great mom moments. I feel so very grateful and full of love for my Heavenly Father for sending her to us. She is all I could have ever dreamed of in a little girl. Some more about our girl:

*She LOVES fruit. The other day she got mad at Stetson for throwing the apple core away because apparently there was much more to be enjoyed, which she proved to be true when I later discovered she had eaten all but half of the stem. *She loves her grandparents. *She is doing so good with potty training and after 4 months of this it feels like winning the lottery. *She talks really well and I love to hear her words and sentences she comes up with. *She loves nursery. *She loves bubbles. * She loves to tell her mom and dad, "Just one minute." *She is a great eater. *Her mom thinks she is the prettiest little girl ever. * She loves her uncles. *She loves to read stories, especially her potty training books. *She loves going to story time. *She thinks her big brother is hilarious * She thinks she has a baby in HER tummy:) *She loves her daddy and very excitedly runs to the door yelling "daddy, daddy!" when he comes home. *She loves to shout "hooray!" and put her arms up in the air at the same time. *She loves cheese. *She loves washing her hands. * She loves having lotion rubbed on her. *She can open fruit snacks by herself. *She goes and hides when she has something she knows she probably shouldn't.

Utah

Isn't this baby A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E!!!!??? We had a good time in Utah last weekend. We went for our neice's baby blessing and got to add some other fun stuff in there too. We left right after my dr. appt. Friday morning, which was great by the way. I have a due date now, June 30th. Got to hear the baby's heartbeat which is always reassuruing--I was being a worry wart since I wasn't showing much and couldn't feel movement. Turns out I'm not as far along as we thought. So after dr. appt we left and arrived at Michael's aunt Diane's at about 9. Sat morning we headed to Provo to watch the grrrreat Jimmer Fridette! It should be said that Michael is not the greatest bball fan, but he hung in there and was a good sport. :) It was neat to watch a big exciting college basketball game. I couldn't believe how exciting they made the beginning part where they introduce the players. HOLY COW!! It felt like the super bowl. Lots of fancy lights, music and more. It was fun to finally watch Jimmer, who we'd all been hearing so much about. BYU won by about 10 pts and it was fun to watch. After the game we all had icecream at DQ, did some shopping, had dinner and went back to Diane's. Sunday morning we headed to Morgan & Fallon's first thing since I had NOT seen Audrey yet and was getting anxious! We first got to see Morgan & Fallon's new condo which her dad is helping to remodel. Then we went to their condo they live in now to see the baby and take some pics. She is adorable. I wish I could hold her again. So precious. We took some 4 generation pictures, watched Morgan give Audrey a beautiful blessing, had a delicous lunch at my gma's complex and headed home about 4.

We were glad to get to do something out of the normal routine and spend time with family. oh! And Joel & Cambrie finally got engaged. Wedding is April 29th. Congrats Joel & Cambrie! I should be nice and plump by then. :)

I have to tell you that this lady, my grandma Foulger is awesome. I miss the "old grandma" when I was a little girl living in California. She still has her spunk and love of life, but she's definitely not the same but I'm so grateful she was in my life when we lived in CA. She is a true optimist, she is a chocoholic, loves to dance (still goes on weekends now) loves music, the gospel, but most of all, she LOVES her family. She was always looking out for us and was trying to help in any way she could. When my cousins would come from Pleasanton, she would have us over to her place at Visa De Lago and we would have a BALL! She always wanted us to have fun and took her role as gma very seriously. It was special to watch her interact with my kiddos and reminisce about my time with her as a little girl. It reminded me that time is short and precious and we should cherish our blessings and time with loved ones.

Goodbye Jared and January

I was thinking latey that life has been pretty uneventful and boring until I looked through these pics and realized a lot has been going on and we have a lot to be thankful for. Where to start? Well...the first pic of Kandace is not posed, she was giving me a-t-t-i-t-u-d-e because she is full of it but I can't say enough about how fun this age is. We've been going at potty training since Thanksgiving and I am lucky to still be alive (Thats a joke). She showed interest at about 20 mos so we stuck her on and she WENT! This was a miracle since just getting Stetson to GO was the huge struggle with him, so we thought Kandace would be a cinch.. Not so much. The struggle with her is getting her to tell us WHEN she has to go. She has no problem going--she goes on the toilet, in the middle of Eddie Bauer, on my good friend's carpet (love u Shay) and anywhere else she feels like it, so we're playing it safe by keeping pullups on her unless we're home. Stinkin baby. Good thing we love her so VERY much. (any advice on this would be greatly appreciated).

I've been craving a steak dinner since our anniversary dinner at rib and chop, so we bought some steaks (well thats what the pkg said) at wal-mart and had those with asparagus, baked potatoe, tossed salad and sparkling cider. Everything was delicious minus the steaks. G-R-O-S-S. They tasted like porkchops, which is cool if thats what you're expecting, but we were expecting steaks. Lesson learned. I'm taking the meat back asap.

The kids are eating asapragus in the next picture. They didn't like it as much as their mom. I ate practically the whole bunch. Other activities of January include taking the kids sledding on the Asay farm (Pulling them behind the burban with a chain=awesome good red neck fun) takin belly bump pics, going to story time, playgroups, teaching my last few weeks of step aerobics and sending our missionary off. SUCH a special time. Jared is going to be SUCH a great missionary. We had a great lunch at great gma Asays and were lucky enough to keep Carson & Travis while Stan & Jan took Jared to the airport. I hope and pray that all my boys decide to serve a mission. I KNOW that serving the Lord for 2 years brings the greatest joy and happiness one can experience.

After that we went to my brother Michael's house for a delicious dinner to celebrate Cannon's 14th bday. Holy cow. I am almost an old aunt. This kid was my first nephew and I loved him (still do) so much I couldn't believe it. I felt like he was my baby I loved him so much and have special memories of him as a little baby and little kid. I'll probably never forget the first time I saw him at the Cody airport in his little baby carrier. I knew I had the cutest nephew that there ever was.

We're excited to go see our new neice Audrey this weekend and spend some time together as a family. Michael's been working 12 hr shifts and I'm pretty much over that. :)