Becoming A Mother.....Again

Last Christmas each of our families received a gift like this:

 And when they opened it, they found one of these:

 Suprise!! We are adding another baby to our family!!

 

I waited a long time to post about this for several reasons. Mainly because adding another baby to our family has been a long and difficulty process but I have learned a lot along the way.
1. Trust in Heavenly Father's plan and his timing
2. Count your blessings
3. Seek comfort through prayer
4. Never underestimate the power of the temple and Priesthood blessings

 

So, I had the idea that it would be fun and exciting to keep the sex of a baby a suprise until delivery. Craig did not see the fun in that at all. And after 20 weeks we still remained at opposite sides of the fence about it. Even the night before the ultrasound we still couldn't come to an agreement. So we went to the doctor the next morning and began the ultrasound.

The baby was laying face down on the tummy.

And the legs were crossed.
The tech said that since the baby was positioned this way she wasn't even sure if she would be able to tell the sex of the baby. At this point I decided to play fair and told Craig we could flip a coin. I had a 50/50 chance but since the baby wasn't in a revealing position I figured my odds were now up to 75/25 chance. We flipped a penny and Craig won. So the tech continued the ultrasound, the baby did switch positions, and Craig got his wish. I told Craig that since we found out I wanted to choose how we would tell our family.

So I made yummy chocolate cupcakes with blue and pink sprinkles on top.



 The middle of the cupcake was filled with colored frosting.

Blue if we were having a boy.

Pink if we were having a girl. 

And the color was...........PINK!!

Can't wait to meet you soon baby girl!! 

March Hall of Fame

A couple of close ups:

Austin's Battlefield Picture/Map

Kayla writing her numbers which she is doing great at!

"When I am a Dad I would go to work"........it appears that Austin has got his future already figured out---being a Dad and going to work.

Come and Find My Geocache

Craig and Austin put together geocache's of their own. Austin was super excited about this and couldn't wait to go and hide his own cache for people to find.

His is called Austin's Toy Cache and you can find it at N 036 degrees 47.135 and W 095 degrees 55.8876

Craig was equally excited at creating one himself. He filled it with fun little toys and is a perfect one for kids. He named it Hansel and Gretel's Secret Stash and you can find it at N 036 degrees 43.837 and W 095 degrees 57.392

Easter Weekend

On Good Friday me and Kayla made Easter Sugar Cookies: Flowers and Easter Eggs

Our Before Set Up

And the finished products....YUMM!!

On Saturday we went over and found Easter Baskets at Grandma Vicki's house

Sunday morning the kids were excited about their Easter Baskets from us

That afternoon we ate dinner at my parents house and the kids did a Easter Egg Hunt in their backyard.

And since my mom knew they would already be getting plenty of candy she filled the eggs with coins and jewels and the kids were just as excited about that!

From there went to Dave & Debbie's for dinner and an Easter egg hunt with their cousins.

Happy Easter!!

Spring Break: Denver

For the second part of our vacation we spent our time in Denver at the Embassy Suites hotel which was less than a mile from Craig's brother's apartment which was perfect. 

Every morning we got to eat a continental breakfast of choice: pancakes, french toast, omlets, bacon, eggs, sausage, fruit, cereal, pastries. It was a great way to start each day.

 We also enjoyed the swimming pool at the hotel

 And the hot tub

We did a lot of geocaching and found all sorts of cool "treasure boxes"

Like an army covered container

And a strawberry container.....Kayla liked this one

One container covered with small rocks

And this one inside a log

Austin thought this one was so cool and still talks about it

We also went to see Oz The Great and Powerful with Brian and Angie.....great movie!

One day we went to an indoor adventure place perfect for kids. It was awesome and the kids had so much fun.

They had a rope bridge for the kids to climb across. It is harder than it looks but both kids were able to do it.

Kayla was nervous the first time and didn't get very far but after getting more comfortable she tried again and made it across and was very proud of herself . 

They had a rope swing where the kids would jump off from the platform and it would swing them back and forth. Austin didn't hesitate at all.

Kayla was nervous at first and needed some help and persuasion but once she did it the first time she wanted to do it again and again. She loved it.

Another picture of Austin and Kayla on the rope swing.

There was also a couple other things for the kids to explore there.

They had 2 other jumps that were ziplines. Kayla getting ready to jump on one of the ziplines.

Austin walking back after using the zipline.

On this one the kids each had their own zipline next to each other and they could jump at the same time and see who was the fastest.

Austin attaching his harness to rope before jumping. The kids got really good at climbing up and being pretty independent.

There was also a large rock-climbing wall. Austin had fun doing this and made it all the way to the top to ring the bell.

We loved this place....definately something to do again next time we come back to Colorado.

We had a great time hanging out with Brian and Angie. (I can't believe I never got a picture of Angie). But here are the boys playing nintendo which is one of their favorite things to do together.

On Friday night March 22nd, Craig and Brian went to watch the U.S. Men's National Soccer team play Costa Rica in the World Cup qualifing match. These are the scarfs they were given as they entered the stadium. It had started snowing earlier that afternoon and continued on as the fans gathered for the game.

 It wasn't long before the soccer field was covered in snow and the snow continued to come down strong the entire game.

 Several times during the game workers would have to scoop off the snow so the boundary lines could be seen.

I can't imagine how difficult it was playing in this.

 
But the U.S. came away victorious with a 1-0 score.

 Craig said it was a great game and definately one he would not forget.

The kids really enjoyed getting to hold and help with baby Bristol.

We got to babysit her one night while Angie, Brian, and Craig went to the Denver Nuggets basketball game.

They had a fun time at the game and the Nuggets came away victorious.

We were worried about getting home the next day as Colorado and Kansas had gotten hit with some heavy snow and the freeway we take home had been closed. But luckily when we woke up the next morning they had opened the roads and we were able to safely make it back home. It was a great trip and we had lots of fun spending time with our family on both sides that live in Colorado.