Favorite childhood treat

One of the many benefits of being married is the joining of favorite family recipes. I've recently been introduced to one of Chad's childhood favorites, which his Mother would make for Easter, Chocolate covered marshmallow eggs. Chad and I decided to tackle the recipe together last night. The little candy eggs were so cute, it was a crack up how much they resembled a real egg. We had a lot of fun, and then today I covered the marshmallow eggs in chocolate.
So after enjoying the gooey goodness of this Easter treat, I'm left wondering why in the world has it taken Chad this long to share this with our family?!!! They are way better tasting than any store bought Easter treat and they beat the classic peeps hands down. Well at least Jenna and this new little one will be able to enjoy these marshmallow eggs for many Easters to come. And we will have done our part to continue yet another family tradition :)

Easter Dress

Yes, I know that Easter is still a week away. But with General Conference being next Sunday, we thought it appropriate to let Jenna wear it today. She has been waiting and waiting :) She helped pick it out about a month ago! We got a few pics right before church and the rain.

Twirling in all her glory :)

She enjoyed seeing all of the other girls in the ward wearing their Easter/spring dresses too!

Lots of adorable little girls.

Pregnancy Journal Entry

I felt the baby kick for the first time yesterday! Right before 18 wks. Chad got to feel the baby as well. It comes and goes so fast that I haven't had a chance yet for Jenna to feel the baby kick. It mostly happens after Jenna is in bed or right first thing in the morning. I've been feeling the baby move around since about 16 wks., give or take. But yesterday was the first definite kicks. It makes it all seem more real. Sometimes I forget that I'm pregnant, which seems funny but its true. We're all getting excited/anxious for our ultrasound in April. Only 3 wks. to go :)

Only My Husband!!

A Kitchen remodel?? Really!!

Ok, so its pretty minor. But, only my husband would come home from work and decide to change the position of our kitchen island. He got curious if it would be easy to move, and about an hour later, he pulled off the baseboards, removed the few screws that were holding the whole island down, removed the electrical cords that ran to the outlet and viola was able to move the island wherever he wanted. I have to be honest, I was nervous and couldn't watch him. Sometimes Chad starts on an idea without fully thinking it through, and then creates a bit of a mess. Plus, I knew I couldn't help him if it tipped over or needed to be lifted up (we have granite countertops, that weigh a ton).

However, when he rotated the island, I loved it! Its hard to explain exactly, but Chad turned the island 90 degrees. It really makes more sense for our kitchen and the space that we have. Currently, the top on our island has no overhang for eating. So, we are going to put a new countertop on it with an overhang, to make it an eat in kitchen.

Thankfully the color of our granite is pretty common so we found a piece for a good price. It won't be ready for a week, so in the meantime our outlets in the kitchen don't work. But our fridge, dishwasher, stove and microwave still do :)

Not exactly your typical "nesting" project!

A new accomplishment

Ok, so I normally try not to post about this sort of thing. It is hard enough being a parent, without adding all of the "look at what my child can do" or the " your child doesn't know how to do that yet?" I fully understand that every child advances at their own pace. And that we love them regardless of their achievements or lack of.

With that said, Jenna has been very interested lately in learning how to tie a shoe lace. She only has velco type shoes, so I've never really given her the chance to learn or explore this. We saw this book at a friends and Jenna was glued to this particular page. So, thanks to wonderful Grandparents Jenna received one for her bitrthday. She has since worked non stop trying to figure it out. She mastered the first half pretty quickly but the part after "around the bunny ear" pull through was giving her stress. But, I am happy to report that today she was successful from start to finish and can't stop tying the laces in the book! Her expression and excitement after watching her struggle for days was just priceless. Now she is asking for "tie" shoes :)

Childhood is truly precious.

The Invitation

I forgot to include a pic of the bday invitation in the slideshow below. As if it didn't already have enough pictures :)

And all this is why we only have friend birthday parties every other year!!

Jenna is 5!!

Well, I cannot believe that Jenna is 5!! Seriously, where did the time go?
This year was especially fun, because Jenna was way more specific about what kind of party she wanted and very involved in the planning. She helped make the posters, and enjoyed putting the gift bags together. It just added to her excitement, if that was possible :)
Jenna had a Fancy Nancy party, which is one of her favorite books. It was nice to have something to gather ideas and games from.
So everything was pink and purple and all about the accessories! When the party time arrived, all the girls got their nails painted with pink sparkly polish. I read one of the Fancy Nancy books to them, then they all dressed up in their Fancy accessories. They played pin the jewel on the tiara, and everyone had a blast getting spun around being blind folded! Then it was time to blow out the candles, followed by making their own parfaits. Jenna loved all of the gifts her friends gave her and had so much fun playing with everyone.
When Chad got home, we went out to Jenna's favorite restaurant, Red Robin. After eating yummy food, the waitresses came and sang Happy Birthday to Jenna and gave her an ice cream sundae. Then it was back home to open presents from the family. Barbie and Polly pockets tended to be the biggest theme. Jenna had a great day!
Thank you to all of our friends and family who sent Birthday wishes her way.

St. Patricks Day

I'm finally getting around to posting pics from our busy week last week.
On St. Patricks day, Jenna got to bring treats to preschool to celebrate her birthday. We made rainbow cupcakes, courtesy of the family fun magazine. Then topped them with white "Cloud" frosting and some chocolate money. They were a hit!
Jenna got a pretty pink crown from her teacher and wore it the rest of the day :)

Baby update

This is mostly for me, since I haven't bought a pregnancy journal yet.

I had my 16 wk appt. today. We'll get to find out if it's a boy or girl at my next appt.!! So the doctor was asking if we had a preference. I explained the whole Chad vs. Jenna debate.

Then we got to listen to that wonderful little heartbeat. At first the Dr. said it was 150 bpm and then quickly said, "No, 155, you might be having a repeat!" Meaning another girl, but then she added that obviously she didn't know for sure. At 7 wks the heart rate was 124 bpm.

Chad said he doesn't buy into the heart rate predicting gender.

We've since found articles supporting Chads stance.

I still think its fun to guess, plus the look on Chads face when the doctor mentioned another girl was priceless!

Miss Independent

Recently Jenna's sense for independence has grown by leaps and bounds. Good and bad.

I've got a feeling that with her turning 5 soon, this is just the beginning :)

The mix of a large outside dog with a wet winter has turned our grassy backyard to more of a mud pit. So as of now, after Jenna has been out playing with Emily, she comes inside covered in dirt.

Yesterday, Jenna decided that she would fix the problem of muddy shoes on her own. She came inside and went straight to the bathroom, I thought to wash her hands. (which is our rule after playing outside) She was in there a long time so I went to check on her. I found my sweet little girl filling her tennis shoes with water, dumping them out and then refilling them over and over again in the sink. She innocently tells me that her shoes were dirty and that she was cleaning them. I then notice her socks, still on her feet, were completely soaked as well. She had tried cleaning those outside with the water in the dog's bowl!

Just lovely!!

So now instead of always encouraging her to do things for herself, we have added that it's OK to ask for help sometimes :)

Lexi's baby shower

Here's a few pics from my sister Lexi's baby shower. She is due early April with a girl! No name picked out yet, but she's still got time :)
My Dad watched all of the kiddos during the shower. It was a beautiful day so they all played outside, jumping and riding the "Gator". It was cute seeing them all ride in it together.
The shower turned out really nice. Lexi received some adorable gifts, which made me miss all of the little baby girl outfits. There is just something about pink! We missed our sister Chelsea, who is down at BYU. But she still contributed by making her signature prego lady cake topper. My Mom brought it back from her recent trip Utah, pretty clever. And my Mom made her always cute Diaper cake.
Congrats Lexi, can't wait for you to have your little girl!

We're off to see the Wizard...

This past weekend Jenna and I headed over to Spokane for a baby shower for my younger sister, Lexi. After I get a few pics from my mom, I'll blog about that.

On Saturday evening my mom, sister Shannon, Jenna and I went to the play "Wizard of Oz" It was presented by CYT (Christian Youth Theater), Shannon was apart of their production "School House Rock". The kids are 8-18 yrs. of age and do a fabulous job. I was really impressed.

Jenna loved the entire experience. It was just as fun watching her reactions than it was to watch the play. She danced, clapped, laughed, and waved to the characters if they walked down our aisle.

Here she is before the show with Shannon, showing off her own ruby slippers.

Jenna and I outside the Theater in downtown Spokane.

This was her first time attending a play.
A few funny moments:

When it came time for the intermission, Jenna said "but the stories not over, why did it stop?"

When the characters would walk up or down our aisle, she would wave and stick her hand out. She said to me "I'm trying to shake their hands but they aren't stopping" I explained that they had to hurry to get to their next positions so they couldn't stop.

Jenna's favorite character was Dorothy. I was worried that she might be afraid when the Wicked witch was on stage, but Jenna said "Isn't she silly, her face is green."

It was such a great experience, we'll have to go more often. Thanks Mom for taking us, Jenna is still talking about it non stop :)