What's Happening In Our Neck of The Woods

So it might seem that this is a surprise, but we are pregnant with our third baby and just found out that it is a boy. I know I haven't written much about this on our blog, but I think I was in denial for a little while. Now, we are excited. I knew that it was a boy for a long time. I remember the day we came home from the hospital with Elise I told Justin that I thought we would have a boy next. Dallin is really excited for a brother. We took Dallin and Elise to the ultrasound. They both did extremely well. Dallin thought that it was so amazing to see the baby's heart beating and the hands and feet move. After the ultrasound he kept on saying how cool it was to see the ultrasound. Elise just kept on saying "baby". I am glad that they both got to see the baby, now the idea of having a baby seems more real to all of us. Well, it will be fun to have three, but I do get a little tired thinking about it.

Our crazy little girl

Elise is definitely getting into her terrible two's; tantrums, curiosity, and messes. If I turn around for one second Elise is getting into something new. This week, she wrote on our walls and couches with a pen, emptied out our silverware drawer and drew all over her face with my makeup. Good thing we know about the magic eraser and Aqua Net. Aqua Net hairspray gets rid of pen marks quite easily. However, it is no fun having to clean all of the time. Sometimes I have to laugh, because Elise is so funny. She seems like such an innocent little girl, but who would have guessed. We love her anyway and hope that this stage doesn't last forever.

Golf Season

Entry by Justin: So it's finally that time of the year. I haven't had much of a chance to get out and play golf yet, but I did manage to take Dallin to the driving range. We had a blast, and I'm happy to report that he did not spend his time eating or rolling in the grass as I would have been doing at his age. Instead, he was busting some 35 yard drives!!! Not exactly a Tiger Woods, but I must say that he's already much better than I was at his age. The good thing is that he had a blast. I tried not to give him too much instruction because I wanted him to just have fun his first time out. I think it worked, and soon we'll start working on his game.... if we get a chance to play again before my bar study begins.

Finding Joy in The Little Things

I decided that since my last post was so sad, we needed to have a happy post. I have been thinking a lot since General Conference about the small moments in Motherhood that bring me joy. Sometimes I like to post on my blog a big or exciting event that happened in our family's lives, but I have come to realize that it is the small every day things that bring us joy. I wanted to write down some of our small every day things that bring us joy and that make me smile.

BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS

We love library books. I love reading them to Dallin and Elise. Last year I decided that each time we go to the library we would pick out an animal or a topic that we would like to read about. This has been so much fun. As you can tell, we got books about monkeys. I learn a lot as well as Dallin. This definetely is something that brings us joy.

Elise's Little Things

Elise loves to get on her hands and knees and pretend that she is a dog. The other day that we were at KOHLS, Elise wanted me to let her walk. So I put her down and she started crawling around the store barking like a dog. It was so funny.

Elise is wearing 2 pairs of pants in this picture. She loves to put on any clothes that she might find around the house. It is so funny because sometimes she is walking around wearing a couple layers of clothes. Also, she likes to pull out the rubber bands from her hair and wear them around her wrist. This isn't so good because I think that it will cut off her circulation. But, nonetheless, it makes me smile to think of the things that she comes up with. Another thing about this picture is that her legs are wet. The reason that her legs are wet in this picture is because she was trying to climb into the toilet. I always tell her "No Elise, don't climb into the toilet its yucky!" But, she just smiles. This makes me laugh afterwards. She is definately a curious little girl.

Dallin's Bedtime Routine

Dallin loves to play with swords, pirates, superheroes, dinosaurs, all the typical boy stuff. He even likes to tease his sister, but he has a soft side to him. He is very caring and loving. He dreams about the day when he will be a dad. One time he told me, "I wonder what I'm going to name my kids and what my kids friends names will be?" He has the funniest thoughts. I like to encourage him to play with boy toys because Justin would rather him not play with dolls and things like that. Dallin has superhero toys and dinosaur toys. But, his favorite thing to do with them is to give them a bath and then wrap them up in a blanket and put them to sleep. He has loved doing this since he was a little baby. It makes me smile because this is what he likes to do and I love watching him take care of things and be so kind and gentle. He usually is very nice to his sister as well. He loves to copy us in the things we tell her. So, he will say Elise say "----", sometimes he tries to get her to say words that we don't want her to say. Dallin also loves to be the first one in Elise's room when she wakes up from her nap. He will say "How's my Lalla girl"(Elise calls him Lalla). Also, when we go to the doctor's office for her check ups the doctor will ask if Elise is doing this or that and Dallin will answer all of the doctor's questions as if he were her Dad. Anyway these are the things that Dallin does that make me smile every day. Here is a picture of his Spider-man all wrapped up in a blanket.

Oops! They don't make stroller like they used to!

We were on our way home from a walk this evening, with Dallin and Elise in the stroller and Justin pushing. Both kids were eager to "go fast," and Justin complied. The problem is, the stroller didn't. The front wheel fell off, and the stroller flipped up in the air and landed upside down with the kids inside! It was the most terrifying moment of our lives (with the exceptions of a few other crazy Dallin moments). Justin grabbed the stroller and turned it back over, with both kids screaming and blood gushing out of Dallins mouth, nose, and forehead. Elise was hysterical too, but not bleeding. As it turns out, she was buckled in and never made contact with the sidewalk. As you can see, Dallin took the brunt of the injuries. He was not buckled in and hit the sidewalk face first. Poor kid. He was a trooper though, and as of this post is sleeping soundly. And no, none of his teeth are missing, thank goodness!!!

The Last Friday of Every Month

The last Friday of every month is something that we look forward to in Iowa. Everything at the mall is free for kids; the carousel, ice skating and even food. So we take advantage of this and have so much fun. Dallin tried ice skating for the first time, but he thought 20 minutes was enough. Good thing it was free. But of course, Dallin and Elise love the carousel so we go on it at least five times. This is one of those things that we will miss about Iowa.

Dallin's Glasses

Dallin just got some new glasses. We tell him that smart people wear glasses, so he feels very smart. However, he does have a hard time keeping them on and we have lost them twice during the first week since he got them. Hopefully, we'll have better luck. Dallin has one eye that he can't see very well out of, so he relies too much on his other eye. Good thing the doctor caught this at Dallin's 4 year check up because it can get worse the longer that it goes untreated. We have to get used to Dallin with his glasses, but of course we think he looks extremely cute.