My Valentine's

What do we think of when we see Red, Pink, Hearts, hear the word Love...... Valentines Day of course!!!
We celebrated all week and started off our Valentines weekend with a couples fondue dinner at our friends house on Friday! We had the babysitter lined up in plenty of time, got my house cleaned (it's just so much more enjoyable going out when you know things are taken care of at home) and ready to go! It has been a long time since I have done fondue and I was so excited. There was 11 people and we had 3 courses.....1st course: Cheese fondue with 2 kinds of bread, apples, carrots, broccoli 2nd course:Vegetable Broth & Peanut Oil fondue with steak, chicken, shrimp w/ a plethora of sauces 3rd course: Milk Chocolate/White Chocolate/Dark Chocolate fondue with pineapple, strawberries, bananas, toasted marshmallows, pretzels, pound cake!!! Needless to say none of us went hungry. It was a great time of meeting new people and it's easy to fellowship around this kind of meal....taking the time to cook your food and just nibble rather than stuffing your faces!
All week Mackenzie had been making Valentine crafts....which is right up her alley! I was planning a Valentine Meal complete with Spaghetti (red), Raspberry Jello, Strawberry Kool-aid, Pink Sprinkle Rice Krispies, then peas and bread for substance!!! So I was encouraging her to make the decorations for the table....confetti and decorated hearts!
Sunday my brothers came over after church for lunch as my parents are out of town and we grilled out.....didn't eat till about 2:00 and stuffed ourselves, so I didn't know if the Valentine meal was going to get pulled off! Aaron gave me my gift that afternoon......a night alone at a local motel so I could get a good night of uninterrupted sleep and also get to sleep in. It was such a nice thought and idea, but I'm a chicken and didn't want to stay by myself and also wanted to be with him on Valentines Day, so we rearranged the plans a little. We took the girls swimming at the hotel pool and invited some friends to join us. We took the girls back home, put them to bed and my brother so graciously came and stayed with them overnight so Aaron and I both could sleep in! It was wonderful.....we got a couple minutes in the hot tub and slept in till 9:30!
Finally on Monday night we got to have our Valentine meal!

The greatest love that a person can ever receive is that described in this verse-
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

And how we respond to that love is described in this verse-
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. . .And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:4-13

January Happenings

I'm starting to see a pattern here....grouping a whole months worth of posts into one! To be honest I don't really like posting without pictures to go along and I haven't been very diligent in taking pictures lately. I'm blaming it on my camera.....I am not happy with the quality of pictures it takes. I rely on my mom for a lot of my photos these days! Hopefully soon we'll decide on which camera we want...the debate is a cheaper camera and then also get a video camera(ours broke a couple years ago) or just go with a more expensive camera that does both really well? Any ideas out there......advice is greatly appreciated!

On to the happenings
Aaron got to go to his first NFL game...the playoff game in Indianapolis watching the Colts win the game that took them to the Super Bowl! My dad got tickets through work and wasn't able to go so he sent my brother and Aaron in his place!

We had our first parent teacher conference and I was really looking forward to it. It's so reassuring when you get the good report from the teachers that what you are working on at home really is paying off, even if you don't see it at home all the time! Mackenzie is really enjoying school and is doing a great job!

We got to go back to Ames for a weekend to visit friends that we haven't seen a while. It was also the weekend for an event at our old church that I had helped organize when we lived there, and it was so nice to go back and see it from a different perspective! Being on the other side of it makes you even appreciate it more! We had a blast catching up with many friends, eating at some favorite places and going back to the church that we went to for 7 years. It was also fun watching the kids interact again....to be honest we haven't been away for what 6 months, but it seems so much longer than that! We miss everyone that became so much like a family to us!

Along with many snow days, meetings, girls get togethers and events at church....we kept quite busy and it is showing no signs of slowing down!

And since I don't like posting without a picture......

That would be Mackenzie's Dora underpants on her head!!!

What have you been reading?

Let me start off with saying that I'm not a huge reader...never have been. BUT when I get into a good book or series I'm engulfed...can NOT put it down. I am pretty sure I have read all of Beverly Lewis books about the Amish.....can't explain, but they just fascinate me! Now that I'm waiting for the next book of hers to come out I have somewhat recently been introduced to Karen Kingsbury. For Christmas I got the whole Firstborn series and within a month had dominated all 5 books!!! This may explain my lack of posts in January, which I'll attempt to catch up on, but they were so good. Ok, I do enjoy a good romance story, but what I really liked about this series was the salvation message throughout the whole story and how much scripture was weaved into it as well. It also caused me to stop and think about the many different relationships in my life and how I could improve them in some way. I guess I haven't read much fiction that has challenged me as much as these have....again I haven't read that much! I can't wait to get to the next series that comes next, but I know that when I do I'm not going to get much else done, so I'm putting it off!
Anyways...I guess what I'm saying is if you are looking for a good author/book you should check Karen Kingsbury or Beverly Lewis out...I strongly reccomend them!!! I do wish I would be as excited and engulfed in the many non fiction books that are on my shelf waiting to be read..or finished. I'm sure I would be even more challenged with them!

So what have you been reading lately?

Bathroom Remodels- Check!

They're done, They're done!!! After 6 months of having moved we have finally finished our bathroom remodels. The hope was to have had them done before we moved in...yeah that's why I am celebrating so much! We have 2 bathrooms, both very small, but both needed some work! The rest of our house had nice textured walls except for the bathrooms....they were completely flat. Well almost.....there were nail and screw holes that had attempted to be covered up or they decided not to cover them up at all and just paint over the nail and screws. Then there was the borders at the top of both of the bathrooms....yeah, they had to go!
To make a long story short...even though there is not pictures to prove it I did in fact take off the border in the girls bathroom and part of ours before I got pregnant and then Aaron had to take over. It was slow moving at first....getting motivated to finish taking off the border in our bathroom that wasn't coming off nicely to say the least!

He even recruited a little help along the way!

He finally had all the border off as good as it was going to get and filled all the holes and was ready to texture!

We didn't know exactly what to expect from a spray can of texture, but Aaron did an excellent job and it turned out nicely!

Here again no pictures to document, but I then painted both bathrooms a medium chocolate brown and was ready to do my shopping! We have had the same shower curtain and towels since we were married and we needed a little change, not so much for the style, but for towels that actually dried you off! I had picked out the shower curtains for each bathroom right after moving in, but I put off getting the towels and other accessories as an incentive to getting them done!

It was so much fun to shop and has been so rewarding to go into the bathrooms now! They seem so much more cozier and warm. Here is some before and afters....one big thing to keep in mind is that the before pictures are what it looked like with the people living here before us. I didn't have the shower curtains and nic nacs that are in the pictures!!!

Before of the girls/guest bath!
I had the girls old fish curtain up in the meantime!

After girls/guest bath!

Before Master bath!

We just had a plain ol liner up for our curtain because we were going to have it done sooner, right!

After Master Bath!

Like I said the bathrooms are very small so it's hard to get a really good picture of it all! In the end we all love it! I especially like having a nice big fluffy towel to dry off with!

Baby #3 Update

Well since I just started my resolution I better not fail within the first day! I haven't done a very good job documenting on this pregnancy and baby #3!
I am officially a full 23 weeks tomorrow! In the last couple weeks I have really started feeling the baby move around. It's almost to the point where I can let other people put there hand on my tummy and feel the movement too, but it's not very clear. I had a checkup a week ago today and things were lookin good! The heartbeat was 160 and I'm horrible I can't remember what it was with the girls. I am measuring right on target and overall feeling very well. I did have a dizzy spell in the doctors office, which hasn't happened that often this pregnancy so far. I got them a lot with Mackenzie, less with Kate and not near as much as I remember with this one, so that's good. I have been telling people recently that with this pregnancy and comparing it to the others, from what I can remember, I don't remember my 1st trimesters being so bad, but then I don't remember my 2nd trimesters being so good!
I have popped out in the last 2 to 3 weeks as well, people starting to comment on me showing! I guess that is a good sign. I didn't have to start wearing maternity clothes until about my 20th week, I was getting a little tired of the small wardrobe that my normal clothes were coming to! My last pregnancy several friends loaned me some clothes, so this time around I am thinking a small shopping trip might be in order. Most of the clothes that I have were from my first one and I was working, so I have a lot of dressy clothes and not as many casual. I have a good amount of pants, but will need to find some shirts. I'm also slightly off on seasons compared to my other ones, they were both winter babies and this one is almost summer!
That's about it for right now....not a whole lot of action. We aren't close enough to have really started the name converstations....last minute people here! We are thinking about the room situation and getting a bunk bed for the girls so they can share a room, and since we aren't finding out...that's right, we are not finding out....there isn't a whole lot more to get ready for at this point!

Kate Update!

It's a new year and even though I haven't quite figured out my New Year's Resolution.....I have a lot in mind. I think I haven't "set" them as in the past they never make it very far into the year ...can anyone relate, or am I the only one? All this goes to say that I have high hopes of being more organized and on top of things this year! I still haven't said it's my resolution, ok well I guess it is...there I did it, I made a resolution!
One of the ways I want to be more organized is staying on top of recording more about my kids development. I started a baby book for Mackenzie and did pretty good, first child right! Kate's is well, still in the sack...horrible, she is only the second....what is this third child going to have......this blog, right!

I missed updating around 18 months for Kate and I'm a little early for her 2 year so does that make up for one another? She has just been changing so much and I know I've already forgot so much, but here's to what little she has been doing lately!
Kate is quite the talker and quickly becoming our little singer! She stared talking a lot earlier than Mackenzie did, around 18 months. We call her our little parrot, repeating anything we say. She is very clear in her vocab and pretty much can say anything. She is working on putting things into sentences, using 2 to 3 words in row right now. Her famous sayings have been "Mowe(more)," "Nasty Nose"(with a slight lisp), "Awe Man!" and "Oh boy!" You can often hear her singing "Jesus Loves Me," "Twinkle Twinkle," or "ABC's!" I have to say she does a really good job with the words too! She counts to 10 all on her own.
Kate's personality is really starting to change...I'm not sure if it's terrible two's setting in, or just her finding her place in the family. She has been a very good baby and toddler.....very compliant and fairly laid back. Lately there has been this different way coming out of her once in a while. She has an opinion, wants to do things her way, slight temper, and fighting back with her sister! A couple times during a game of tug o war over a toy, she has reached up and pulled Mackenzie's hair. It's hard not to laugh a little for a couple reasons.....awe as to where she has learned such a thing and second because her sister has had it coming to her for a couple years worth of torture! Actually Mackenzie handles it pretty well...not fighting back!! FFeww!
She has definitely been a great sleeper...always has been! Goes to sleep on her own, but she went to one nap much earlier than Mackenzie did, around 14 months...I think! I can't believe we are going to move her to a big girl bed here soon when the baby comes. It's much earlier than we switched Mackenzie, but I think it will be fine. We plan on having the girls share a room and hope to get a bunk bed, with the double on the bottom, for Kate and also if we have visitors we'll still have a big enough bed for them to sleep in!
She is a pretty good eater.....as long as there is Ranch to dip it in! Ok, not everything, but pretty close. She also is a HUGE fruit eater! She does very well with a spoon and fork. It's so nice not having someone to feed....I guess I only have about 4 more months of freedom with that!!!
Her favorite things right now are Elmo and Dora & Boots! She really likes to play with Mackenzie....and Mackenzie does a pretty good job of playing along with her. She likes dress up, playing "house/babies," kitchen, doll house, and "Ashes-Ashes!"
It is so funny...if we are leaving the house for any reason at all Kate will always say "HyVee?" and if we say no she says, "WaMart?" Those happen to really be the only 2 places we ever go, no just kidding, but it's almost true as that is about all we have in our town! We can't really figure out why she loves HyVee so much....she begs and begs to go there! It's either we drive by it so many times in a week, or that she loves the car carts!
She has been pretty healthy besides the cold every once in a while, which she tends to get more often than Mackenzie ever does. I guess she had croup right around Thanksgiving which would have been 21 months for her. Not fun!!!
She definitely keeps us laughing, with all her facial expressions and antics she is quite the clown! She is much more of a climber than Mackenzie was at that age. She seems so grown up already and I know she will seem even moreso when the baby comes!
We feel so blessed to have been entrusted Kate to raise and pray that with grace and mercy we will do the best we can with the Lords guidance! She has brought so much joy to our lives and before she came we couldn't imagine loving another child as much as you love the first, and now we are at the same point again, anticipating loving another child as much as our 2 beautiful girls!