Surprise!

We're having a BOY!!

Details to follow...

Swimming and Marching

The first part of last week was really hot around here and we got to go to a little swim party and BBQ one day. The girls had a blast in the water with their friends. Here are some pictures:

Lizzie loves holding onto the side and scooting around

The best one I got of Natalie

Playing with some friends. I love Natalie's face in this picture.

We also had our March for Babies last weekend. Unfortunately, my camera died after only one picture. But I thought it was a pretty cool one.

We met in front of the capitol and there were tons of people there. I hadn't been to a March this big before. They blocked off part of downtown and we got to walk right in the street. I always enjoy being a part of these, mostly because it gives me a chance to remember our experiences. Thank you again to everyone who donated.

Exercise

Since about December I have been jogging more consistently that I have in a long time, probably since high school. This is not to say that I'm in anywhere close to the shape I was in during my high school sports years. Before you think that I am some kind of marathon runner, you have to realize that I only jog about 1-2 miles. It's a short loop around that ends at the park near our house so the girls can get out and play when it's nice. The point is that I am going out 3-4 times a week, which is really good for me. Plus, on the rare occasion that I am able to go out jogging by myself and not pushing 70ish pounds of kids/stroller, my normal run is easy. So, I like to think that I could run 3-4 miles easily without the kids (probably a huge overestimation of my abilities but I like to think it anyway).

One key to my recent success is my wonderful ipod. I hate to admit it, but I had always kind of judged moms out walking/running with their kids and listening to their ipods. Yet again, my previous judgments were thrown in my face. I got to a point not long ago where I was only able to run about half of the course we take. It always felt like such a struggle and so I would give up and walk. Then, after a great run by myself with my ipod one morning, I decided to try taking the ipod along with the kids. I felt guilty at first, but luckily didn't let that stop me. It also took a little bit of adjusting for the girls. They quickly learned that I couldn't hear their complaints against the other sister for "putting her feet on my side!" etc., etc.

The very first time I used the ipod, I ran the whole distance and I haven't had to stop and walk since. It was amazing. I learned that I am not a person who can run for the sake of running. I need to have my mind focused on something other than what my body is doing. Music helps me to do that. I also learned that I need to stop with the guilt about everything. Well, I relearned this. It's a recurring theme in my life as mother but I am making progress, I think.

Anyway, some of my current favorite songs to run to are:
-"Viva la Vida" by Coldplay
-"Killing Me Softly" by the Fugees
-"I Will Be There" by Michael Jackson (Joe laughs at me for this one--the Free Willy song--but I love this song and the beat is perfect for my pace)

What are your favorite songs to listen to while exercising? I'm always up for new stuff.

OK, enough going on and on about me, Joe is the one who has really stepped up his exercising. He is waking up in the mornings to go work out with a friend, doing push-ups and sit-ups and playing a lot of basketball. He is in much better shape than me right now and is the one who helped me set a firm goal to exercise consistently. Yea for Joe!

We like to celebrate our success by eating ice cream at 10pm and implementing other such counteractive measures. We wouldn't want to be too in shape. :)

Gratitude

I received another one of the mass e-mails March of Dimes has been sending out in preparation for March For Babies and this one told about a recent L.A. Times article that reported about a family in the area whose recent tragedy encouraged a huge amount of support from around the country for the cause. Their little 17 month old girl, who was born 10 weeks early, passed away suddenly from a respiratory illness. I read the article and visited the mom's blog and basically sobbed. It is so heartbreaking.

It struck me how blessed I am and how much I take my blessings for granted. Elizabeth was born only a week later (gestation-wise) than this little girl and, although she had her struggles, they are almost completely behind her. She is healthy. Natalie is healthy. Why do I ever complain about anything when I have them with me?

Hug your kids today and be grateful for them. I know that I am.

A Sick Easter

We had a nice Easter, even if it didn't quite go as expected. The girls both ended up too sick to go to church on Sunday so I stayed home with them. Nothing too bad--just coughs and colds. We tried to still enjoy some of the spirit of Easter with different activities. We had our very first sunrise Easter lesson out on our back patio which we hope to make an annual tradition. I didn't even have to wake the girls up since they were up way too early for some reason. It went pretty well, despite some complaints from Natalie about having to wait a few minutes for her beloved "frosted wini-meats". It was nice to have a chance to reflect upon the real reason for Easter: the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We did manage to have a little Easter egg hunt in the backyard after Joe got home from church. Here are some pictures:

The thrill of the hunt

I love Natalie's expression in this one:

In the evening, I found them pretending to sleep again, looking like this:

I love the basket as a hat and that they're snuggling with their chocolate bunnies.

Here's our eggs that we made on Saturday. No one but me wanted to make one with designs. Obviously, they regretted that when they saw my masterpiece. :)

We were busy all morning on Saturday having our garage sale. It actually went really well, thanks to all the people who donated things. We've made $325 and counting (we still have some things up on craig's list that are getting interest). It was stressful but actually pretty fun. It reminded me of the garage sales I used to attempt as a kid.

We've still been sticking around the house until the girls recover so we had a lazy day today. It also happened to be kind of a disastrous day for Natalie. First, she fell on the stairs and bumped her head pretty hard on the iron railings we have. Then, later she fell outside and scraped her chin. She actually fell again and hurt her stomach but that one wasn't too bad. Combine all that with not being able to stop coughing during nap time and getting almost no sleep and it was a pretty rough day. It certainly didn't hurt her spirits, though. She was still as happy as ever for the most part.

Look at that angelic face
(can you see the goose-egg and the scrape?)

Speaking of the little one, I should give a potty-training update. We had a pretty tough week as far as accidents go but she finally stayed dry all day today. And, despite the accidents during the week, she has been staying dry at night and during her naps, too, which is really nice. We're doing our best to persevere...

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter!

Some New Stuff

This will be kind of a hodge-podge post on some things that have been happening lately. First of all, we had a great time at yet another Conference gathering at my parents' house. We enjoyed yummy omelets, jumping on the trampoline, looking at old family pictures, and listening to the talks (as much as possible with that many kids around). Here are some pictures of the kids and one of their favorite pastimes at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

I love Natalie's hair and Lily's expression in this picture:

Elizabeth, Isaac and Brayden

These next two I stole from my sister-in-law's blog.

Fun Uncle Chris with the kids

Lizzie and Lily

In other news, we are potty-training Natalie again. This time, there is no turning back. She decided (on my birthday, actually) that she wanted to poop in the potty. We started training the next day and after a kind of rough start she has been doing great. Sunday, despite all of the excitement, she was accident-free! Today she did great all day and then pooped in her pants. She still is kind of shaky in that department. She has been staying dry even through naps and at night sometimes so she's actually in panties tonight for the first time. I'll probably regret it in the morning but you never know. Elizabeth was staying dry at night when she was first trained and I put her in panties as soon as I could and she never had accidents after that. Natalie's a little younger than she was so we'll see how it goes. Anyway, yea for not having to buy diapers! I even get to return a big Costco pack that I had luckily not opened yet. Woo-hoo!

I've been meaning to scan in some of Elizabeth's drawings before they improve too much. Her drawings are already a lot more recognizable than they used to be.

Here is a cute one she drew of our family
(she decided that Natalie is the Mickey Mouse sticker)

We had such a nice FHE tonight that I wanted to remember it. We talked about things we learned in Conference and the kids were actually paying attention for the most part. Then, we enjoyed yummy strawberry shortcake on a blanket in the backyard. It was such a nice day. It really feels like summer will be here before we know it. Also, there are some tiny plants popping up in our vegetable garden. Maybe it will grow! Life is good.

April Fools Day

Yesterday was not only a day of trickery, it also happened to be my 25th birthday. We celebrated a little bit of both.

I haven't really performed many April Fools gags in my life, and surprisingly haven't had many done to me even though it is my birthday (with one really good exception, you know who you are). Anyway, I read about a fun little gag in Family Fun magazine and decided to try it out. You just put food coloring in the bottom of a cereal bowl and then pour the cereal on top. Then, when you add milk, the milk mysteriously turns a different color. I wanted to do it to the kids but I was actually kind of afraid they would refuse to eat their food after the color change. So, I made it as painless as possible and turned their milk pink. Sure enough, after the initial surprise, they both enjoyed their pink milk. They were fun to trick.

Here they are:

Joe was working out when we were eating and I had his bowl all ready for him when he got back. Unfortunately, the first thing he did was talk to Natalie. Of course she proceeded to explain about the pink milk to which Elizabeth reprimanded her for giving away the secret and the gag was finished. I didn't get a picture of Joe's green milk but he didn't appreciate it as much as the kids, mostly because some of the cereal pieces on the bottom had time to soak up the food coloring and looked black. Oops...

I had a great birthday. The girls had been so excited in the days before my birthday and both remembered as soon as they were up to say "Happy Birthday!" and they gave me big loves. In fact, they were both pretty nice to me all day. We had pizza for dinner, opened presents, and then headed out on our first bowling excursion as a family. We had a fun time. The girls mostly helped us push the ball and then watched (or not--Natalie lost interest pretty much right after the ball shove was complete) for 10 minutes while the ball slowly crept to the pins and knocked a few down. Sadly, their scores still weren't much below ours. I did manage to pull out a win for once with a 102.

We came back for cake and ice cream and then got the kids to bed so Joe and I could watch Marley & Me. Joe slaved over a delicious, homemade carrot cake for me, something I've never even attempted. It was a wonderful day.

I wanted to write down one funny moment that happened as we were driving home from the bowling alley. We had our Disney music in (like always) and were listening to "A Whole New World". Joe was singing along, of course, when Natalie yelled, "Let Aladdin sing it!!"

I love my family... :)