We Are Having a Little Boy!

Sam and I went to my 20-week ultrasound on Friday, and we found out we are adding another little boy to our family!

I have to say that I was really surprised! I was pretty much convinced it would be a girl because my pregnancy is so similar to Ellie's rather than Nathan's. I even slipped and called the baby "she" a few times. Ellie was also convinced it was a girl - and not from me! Every time I would ask her if the baby was a boy or a girl she would say girl.

But during the ultrasound there was no question that it's a little boy in there! He even flexed his muscles for us:

We are all so excited! Well, except for Nathan - he has no idea what is going on. His little world is about to be rocked.

Ellie loves to look at the ultrasound pictures and tell us that it is her little brother.

I am always so nervous before ultrasounds that something will be wrong with our baby, but we were so blessed to see that everything looks normal. 

What Do We Do When Dad Is Gone? Part 3

We didn't do anything out of the house today because, let's face it, I was too tired to go anywhere after I got off of work. 

Ellie did make this tower for me, though, while I was fixing dinner. She kept telling me "I making you a really tall one!" and then brought it over and said, "This castle for you!" And she made this silly face when I told her to smile. Love that girl.

We also made brownies. Ellie loves to stir and she's getting better at not slopping the batter everywhere, which is awesome. It makes me much more willing to let her help! :)

We also had a little "mishap" while I was making dinner. The garlic had to simmer in the butter for a few minutes, and Nathan started crying soon after I put it on. He needed a little more help than I originally thought, and when I came back the butter was completely burned and the spoon looked like this. Sweet.

Once the brownies were done and we had eaten dinner, we had a movie night. (I have no pictures... but I'm sure you can imagine what we looked like as we watched the screen.) I picked Hercules since Ellie hadn't seen it yet, and she loved it. Every time a song started she would say "the guy is singing!"

Poor little Nathan was having a hard night, so he mostly got to snuggle with me while the movie was on and go to bed early. Hopefully that doesn't mean he will wake up early...

Ellie keeps reminding me that after her nap tomorrow, we are going to pick up Daddy.

We can't wait! 

Love,

What Do We Do When Dad Is Gone? Part 2

     This morning we went to the city library. I have to admit, this is the first time we've been to the library. How is that even possible?

     When Ellie saw the kid-sized computers, she sprinted toward them. She immediately sat down and said "I working like Daddy!" It is so funny to watch her little hands imitate Sam's when he types. (Please don't mind that she is wearing the same shirt that she wore yesterday. She really wanted to wear it again because she loves the heart on it, and it's from "Vivie" (Evie). I decided to let that one slide.)

     Once I got a game set up for her, she was in heaven. She figured out how to hold down the button on the mouse to color the picture. She was quite proud of herself.

     It turns out that we got to the library about 30 minutes before story time, which was lucky for us! After she played on the computer, we went in and got her settled on the rug. They sang some songs (when they sang "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" she turned around and yelled to me "This is my song!") and read some stories. She loved the whole thing, but she kept turning around to make sure I was still there.

     Nathan had a great time too! This is the only picture I got of him, though. He loved the toys they had set up for younger kids and the fish tank. He pretty much just played by himself, which is very typical of him. He's very easy-going and able to entertain himself.
   
     The kids had a blast, and it was nice to get out of the house. I'm sure we will be going back soon! Especially as the weather continues to get colder.

Love,

What Do We Do When Dad Is Gone? Part 1

     Sam is at a conference in San Francisco until Thursday, so we are having some adventures while he is gone. 

     The first adventure was taking Sam to the airport in Idaho Falls. Poor Ellie really wanted to go with her dad. She has been telling me all day about how daddy went on the airplane and that he is far far away, and she always follows it up with "I miss daddy."

     In the evening we went to the store to pick up a few necessities, then I took the kids to McDonald's for dinner. I can't even tell you how happy they were to get to run around. And that Ellie is an apple juice lover. Any place she can get apple juice is a happy place for her.

     Nathan had the time of his life in the little kid part of the play place. He chased another little boy around, and they were both just laughing... Until the other boy pushed him over onto his head. He was pretty inconsolable after that. The mom of the other little boy felt horrible, but hey! Stuff like that happens! I was just glad that the kids had fun and that they were able to get a little energy out of their systems.

     We will see what other adventures await tomorrow!

Love,

Halloween

We didn't get very many pictures from Halloween because, well, our night mostly looked like this:

We decided against trick-or-treating that night because it was cold, but also because screaming princesses aren't generally very fun to take around the neighborhood. The kids' cousins were able to come over and play for a little while that night, so that was good!

We may not have had a wonderful Halloween evening, but we do have a few pictures from a ward activity the week before that the kids really enjoyed. Ellie was Cinderella and Nathan was an Army guy.

The Tuesday before Halloween we also took the kids to a Halloween party with some friends from the ward where they "trick-or-treated" from mom to mom. So if you were worried that they didn't get enough candy, they definitely did! :)

Maybe next year the kids will have a better Halloween.

A Girl Loves Her Dad

I can't even begin to say how much Ellie loves her dad. I think she has more of his personality than mine. She is social, fun-loving, tender-hearted, silly, and HAPPY. 

She is getting better about it, but she used to ask about him all day when he was at work. Sam has been putting together cabinets at our storage unit pretty much every day for the past few weeks, (that's for a post coming soon) and the only time he has had to go has been after work. Last week he had been gone all day and we ate dinner without him. After dinner Ellie looks up at me from playing with her toys and says "I miss daddy."

She just adores him. He is much more fun than mom - he is the one to play crazy with her.

(We joke that Ellie wakes up like Sam - wide awake, happy, and ready to go - and Nathan wakes up like me - groggy, grumpy, and ready to eat. This picture shows that a little bit.)

Every day when Sam is getting ready for work, he let's Ellie "help" him by pulling his tie to finish tying it. She takes that job quite seriously. This morning Ellie got her own tie, and Sam put it on her. She thought it was great. Well, until she pulled the knot too tight. :)

I'm so glad that my kids have such a wonderful dad! And he's a pretty dang great husband, too. :)