Valentine Parties

The girls had great Valentine parties at school.  We are so lucky to have so many parents and teachers who want to help out.  Both parties were a hit! 

2 Legged Monster

Emma and Justin thought they were pretty funny the other night, they made there dad laugh so I guess they must have been pretty funny to get a rise out of him!

A Baby Gift

We got a visit and gift from my good friend Becky this week, she is also expecting a little boy (one month before us).   I have been sick all week with bronchitis and she was sweet enough to bring us a treat!  I am feeling WAY better now and glad to be back to “normal!”

 

CUTE!  Cant wait to meet our little man!

Valentine Cookies

Justin, Claire and I have been trying to beat the winter blahs around here.  Its not that I don't have a TON to be doing, (I have done NOTHING to get ready for this new baby) I just don't have much motivation, I just know I am going to start that “nesting” phase any day now….please soon!! 

We made those peanut butter cookies with 4 ingredients you know the ones and you put a Hershey kiss on top.  (I should have taken a picture)  Anyway we put Reeses hearts on top instead, they were yummy!  Who doesn't love unwrapping chocolates!

Fancy Nancy

Claire got a couple of Fancy Nancy Books for Christmas and so everything now is Fancy Nancy.  “Mom don't I look Fancy Nancy?”  She has been hauling around my little red clutch because it is very fancy!

She is such a girlie girl and I LOVE it!

Boys Room

Here are some of the inspiration pictures, I love this bedding from pottery barn, In the other pictures it has a plaid comforter instead of the stripes (under the star quilt) I hope I can find the plaid instead, (for a duvet cover for a down comforter) I like it a lot better and it will match the crib bedding better and then I will do some plaid panel cutains Im not sure if long curtains in a boys room is a good idea or not, we will see.

I already bought the star CRIB bedding from Target it is blue, I cant get the picture or link to load of it. I am going to set the boys up in Claires room and paint the bottom 3/4 of the walls brown or else a gold color, Im not sure which, I dont want it to be too dark. I will leave the top white. I am going to make Justin this rustic head board from Ana White:

I dont like the whole storage bed, I just want the headboard. Then in two years when the baby needs a big bed I can just build another to match Justins. Its not much but its a start, probably more than you wanted to know! Now I just need some ambition! Actually I think I will wait until the snow is gone and baby is born before I start this all. Now I have to find some ideas for Claires new room.

Plugged In!

We have been totally plugged in since Christmas it seems like. There is a reason I have not allowed any sort of gaming device in our home and it is exactly for this reason:

 

It is lunch time here and Claire, and I are still both in our jammies (in my defense jammies are the ONLY comfortable thing I have to wear lately and I have been wearing them LOTS more than I normally would I have to admit) But Claire really has NO excuse for it! When we went to Vegas I was the (un) lucky winner of an ipad! Yeah! I actually wanted an ipod for Christmas, but wasnt a good enough girl this year I guess. But an Ipad was not at all what I wanted. My kids are a different story, they are loving the new fun games and apps that it has. We are still working on a when its ok and not ok to play schedule, I am SURE the newness will wear off here shortly and we can go back to being a normal old fashioned family like I like it!

I myself have been doing a lot of research, (can I really call it that?) I am trying to get myself in the nesting mode so I can get this house and family ready for a new baby brother. I think I have finally found an idea I can COPY for baby boy/big boy room. I am just not wanting to move Claire out of the big room and paint over her super cute pink and green stripes, what if this ultrasound is wrong and we are really having a girl and then I go and ruin my favorite room in the house for nothing! I think I will be waiting to do a boy room AND a girl room till summer time. In the meantime we are just hanging out, doing laundry, a little closet cleaning, and other boring winter activities.

Justin has been working with Ryan a lot so Claire and I (if we can tear ourselves away from our electronics) have been playing lots of wacamole, hungry hippos, and some puzzles.

The big girls are doing well too. School is good other than a new bus route at the beginning of the year this year. We get picked up 30 minutes later than our old pickup time and yet we have missed the bus 3 times in 3 weeks, how does that happen?? (up until that point we have missed the bus ONCE in 4 years of riding) Really it is quite annoying and the problem is the bus doesn't come to our house anymore the girls have to run to the corner (and from the corner after school) The biggest problem is the bus comes from the West and we cant see it coming until it is already here, well not really here, at the corner. Needless to say I am driving the girls to school now, it has been to upsetting for everyone missing the bus, and hopefully this will solve our morning madness, at least until the baby comes, what a pain in the neck!

Well I have sobbed on long enough, time to get some laundry folded and maybe get dressed.....Claire has now changed her outfit 3 times since I stared this post, what a busy body!

Another Sunday Show

Ashley and Emma put on another Sunday Show for us.  I'm not sure what Emma is holding here, they wanted their pictures taken before the show:

Ashley made up her own outfit, she even wore it to school the next day… minus my jewelry of course!

Emma’s show went on, and on, and on, she was so proud of herself because she didn't even practice, Ryan advised her TO practice a little bit next time!

Claire was quite into it though.

 

Ashley taking money and telling us the rules of her dance off.  Emma was the judge and we all won, although I thought Ryan's dance moves were by far the best!!

Spokane Trip Day 2

Ashley woke us all up bright and early the second day, she was ready to get on with her day!  The rest of us weren't so willing….  We got to the mall 2 hours before it even opened!!  I thought a couple of the stores would open sooner, so we hung around for a while before heading back to the hotel.

Thankfully it is only two blocks from the Davenport so we could walk back and forth easily.  The girls loved the sky walks over the streets, and it was FREEEZING so it was nice not to have to walk on the street.

We went back and got the car and drove to the “normal” stores (Target) that open early enough for Ashley while we were waiting for this place to open:

We spent a LOT of time (and money) here.  It was so fun though!  The girls loved painting their own pieces, it wouldn't have cost so much if we didn't have to have it all shipped to us, (yuck!)

We ended up not going to the Children's museum.  We thought it looked to little kiddish for us.  We spent the rest of the time shopping and then taking pictures at the Davenport, it really is a fun place!  The main lobby:

The cool doorman:

We even managed a picture with the famous Louie Davenport himself!

       

It was a fun trip!  I didn't feel as rejuvenated as I usually do after this trip, I think it had to do with keeping two girls entertained!  I normally take a good book and enjoy my Davenport mattress a little more!  I think that will for sure be the agenda for next year, except I will be toting a little boy….. 

Spokane Trip

We are on our annual trip to the lovely Davenport Hotel in Spokane Washington! We decided to bring Ashley and Emma along this year. They are missing school this week, and had all of their homework done before we even got to Washington, so I think they will be ok missing a couple days! They are just loving the place and all of the attention they are getting, they are the only kids here this year, they are having tons of fun anyway. Ashley panicked a little at dinner wondering which fork to use first.
Emma tried out the jumbo shrimp, but didnt care for it too much. We have scoped out the hotel a little bit and already tried out the pool. We went to Northtown shopping all afternoon and plan to go to a childrens museum in the morning. Ryan is just in meetings all day.
At dinner there was a huge chocolate fountain and really fun fruit trees full of yummies to dip in the fountain.

This is the biggest chocolate fountain I have ever seen! We couldnt stay out of it, it was so yummy! We are really enjoying ourselves! Justin and Claire stayed with Grandma Nielson for the night, they were excited to get to do that and we will go back there tomorrow afternoon before we go home Friday morning.