Monday, November 12, 2012

Snow & New Bed

With the cold weather and snow coming (we got some last night!) we have been trying to find all of our snow clothes.  I got Belle some snow pants at the end of last year on clearance for this year and they fit great, a little wide in the legs but all snow pants are.  She thought they were funny when we tried them on.  She looks like a puffy little pink and red marshmallow.



Jarod has been working so hard at building a bed for us.  We have only ever had a metal bed frame for our bed and a couple of months ago we took our queen mattress back to Costco since it was sagging after only 3 years on a 10 year warranty and bought a new king sized memory foam mattress.  We have loved the new mattress but its made to be a platform bed so it has just been on the floor for the last few months.  I found a great tutorial for a farmhouse bed and both Jarod and I loved the style.  Find the tutorial HERE.  It was a little time consuming but it turned out fantastic.  Its a little rustic and is really solid.  We modified the plans a little to our liking and the size we needed (our footboard is a little taller than the original but I wanted it above the mattress not below like in the plans).  We painted it the same white we are planning to paint all the moldings in our house and gave it a couple coats of a super nice clear coat to protect it for the next 100 years!  We are slowly (and I mean slowly-like a 5-10 year plan) remodeling our house.  Eventually we are going to have bigger, nicer moldings that are white, new carpet, and different colored walls.  We are also moving the master closet around and there will be a door to the closet off of the right wall in the photo below.  We have a couple of unfinished nightstands we are adding trim to and painting to match the bed but it will be a while before those are ready. Jarod did such a great job, right!

Books & Halloween

Belle loves to read books.  She will spend long periods of time in her room going through all the books on her shelves.  One day she was being quite reading her books and I went to check on her to discover that she was lining all the books up after she read them on the floor.  They were all across the whole floor and she had them all organized neatly.



Belle got to dress up a lot this year.  We went to a Halloween party at Bart & Kellie's house and she wore her fairy costume from last year.  The next day was our ward Trunk or Treat and she decided instead she wanted to wear her ballerina costsume. She also wore it on Halloween.




We went trick or treating downtown for the first part of Halloween night.  Belle was really nervous about all the kids and people everywhere.  She finally wanted Jarod to pick her up and she just hugged him and buried her face in his neck.  It was so cute but sad that she was nervous.  I think all the costumes were confusing and making her unsure.  After a few minutes she was fine and was loving all the candy she got.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Farmer Consumer Awareness Day


Belle thought the Jackrabbit Mascot was great at the first football game of the year.



Belle loved watching the Farmer Consumer Awareness Day parade.

We saw friends...

and family. (Uncle Fred's big truck)

We walked around all the booths, had some yummy BBQ lunch, and bought some great produce from the FFA kids.  We wished we had gone to the Hot Air Balloon festival that night because the fireworks show was amazing!  We watched it from our front steps and it was incredible-it was the most amazing show I have ever seen and everyone that went thought so too.  We are definitely doing that next year!

County Fair & Rodeo

We went to the Grant County Fair as a family.  Belle had so much fun and really go into things this year.  We ate yummy food, saw all the animals and booths and took Belle on a carousel ride. She loved the carousel and cried when we wouldn't let her ride again.



We got a lion ear (an elephant ear from the Lion's Club booth) and took it to the rodeo with us.  My mom passed on her tickets she got from work to us so we had great box seats.  Belle just licked the cinnamon and sugar off her lion ear.


It was Jarod's first time at a rodeo and he loved it.  Here is a buckin' bronco!  It was great entertainment and we loved the different events: roping, riding, and barrel racing.

Scout Camp

Jarod is the Scout leader over the 12-13 year old boys and went to Scout Camp this year at Camp Cowles just north of Spokane.  There was a huge LDS Encampment this year that has not been done for over 25 years.  There were several stakes from Washington, Idaho, and (maybe Montana).  There were thousands of Scouts there and it was a great experience for the boys in scouting and in spiritual things.
Here they are at check-in, as you can see-so many scouts.


Our troop had a great turn out, almost all the boys in our troop were able to go.

One of the firesides.

Spirit Lake

For the 4th of Jul week we got to go stay at my aunt and uncle's cabin on Spirit Lake in North Idaho.  It was so much fun to get to spend a few days together with my whole family (all of my siblings and their families were able to go).  On the 2nd of July, Belle fell off a chair at my parents house and landed on her shoulder and broke her collarbone.  It was pretty sad that she had to be wrapped up for most of our trip.  She did so well having her arm wrapped up and trying to play in the water at the same time.  Her collarbone is healed now and we are so glad that it was a pretty minor ordeal.



What a great view from the cabin!


Even Emma had a great time (my new little niece).

Friday, October 19, 2012

Today

Today is always a hard day.  It's a day filled with a lot of mixed emotions, some happy, but mostly sad.  It's hard to believe that my little baby would have been 4 years old today.  I just can't imagine what she would have been like or would have been doing.  Happy Birthday Hope, we miss you everyday and can't wait to be together again.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Cute pictures

We went to a fun and cute reception for one of my cousin's getting sealed in the temple (YAY for Zack and Becka!).  Belle fell in love with the photographer and was following her around and so the photographer snapped a couple of cute pictures of my sweet girl.  


I made some yummy chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese filling and chocolate frosting to add to the dessert table.  I loved the cute pearls all over the top and it went well with the vintage theme of the reception.



This last one is my favorite.  I think I need to frame it and hang it up!



Things are going great with the baby.  We had our big ultrasound a couple weeks ago and everything looked good.  A four chamber heart,  good measurements on everything, and a cute profile.  I decided to get the quad screen test this time and that came back negative.  I have another ultrasound scheduled the beginning of November.  My doctor and I have have talked about all the monitoring we will do as I get farther along and how we may consult with a perinatalogist again (I say one monthly with Belle's pregnancy).  We will have a lot of non-stress tests (basically monitoring the baby's heart rate over a period of time) and a lot of AFI's (amniotic fluid index-measure the amount of fluid through an ultrasound). With Belle we induced me about a week early but it didn't go as planned (nothing happened-my body just wouldn't go into labor). So we waited a couple of days and tried again. I would like to be induced again so that we can monitor the baby the whole time I am labor and know that everything is ok but how early we will do that I am not sure, it will all depend on how ready my body seems. I have been a little less sick this pregnancy than with either Hope or Belle (with Hope I threw up 4-5 times everyday for 9 months, with Belle I threw up at least 1-2 times a day for 9 months). But with the this pregnancy there have been several days in a row where I haven't thrown up so that is nice (still a lot of nausea but the medication I have been taking this time has worked better for that and I feel better this month than last month and last month I felt better than the month before that-so progress).

Friday, September 28, 2012

Who doesn't love a pony?


Here is our new pony Cinnamon.  My dad surprised everyone yesterday by buying a family pony.  He is 5 months old and his back is only about 3 1/2 feet tall.  He will get bigger but he is half Shetland pony so not too big.  All the grandkids screamed and jumped up and down when we told them.  It will be so fun for the kids to have a pony, my grandpa always had a pony for the grandkids and it was a fun memory growing up.

Friday, September 21, 2012

IT'S A GIRL!

We had a friend of ours take a quick peek at our little bundle a couple weeks ago and she thought it was a girl.  After having a party to celebrate (wished I had taken pictures), we had our official doctor ordered ultrasound yesterday.  Well, our second opinion said it was a girl too.  We are excited for Belle to have a sister and that we can use all the cute baby clothes we already have.  Belle has a hard time saying sister, it sounds like sisser, so we are calling the baby "sissy" for now. Just a side note, my due date the doctor gave me is February 9 (I thought the 10th based on my own calculations before my first appointment but we will go with what the doc says).

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Jarod has finally received his Christmas present



For Christmas I got Jarod a day at racing school at a track in Post Falls.  It was a great package deal with tickets to a race and Jarod getting to drive one of the stockcar racecars.  It has 435 horsepower and is not limited in anyway (Jarod wanted me to include those features in this description). Here he is out on the track.  I think he did pretty good for a first-timer.  He had to put on the full suit and helmet and everything.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Surprise!


Friday, June 1, 2012

Memorial Day Weekend

We were invited by Jarod's parents to a condo in Leavenworth for the Memorial Day weekend.  It was so much fun.  We went up Saturday evening and came home Monday night.  It was beautiful.  We were down in a meadow area that had a beautiful pond with a fountain.  There was a pool just a few steps away-that Belle asked constantly to go in- and it had a 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, and a full living room and kitchen.  We spent time downtown walking through all the cute shops, we ate yummy crepes at one restaurant, and loved the gorgeous mountain views and trees.  It was a fun, relaxing weekend.  Belle was just getting over a cold, and I was still in the middle of a cold, but it was still a lot of fun. Thanks Mom & Dad!

Here is what the condos and the pond looked like (the landscaping was so nice).




Monday, May 21, 2012

Hot Weather & Our Deck

We had a couple of days of recording breaking heat this month (90 & 93) so of course Belle was thrilled when I told her I would get her pool out.  She lived in her swimsuit for 2 days.  

She didn't like how cold it was at first.



We are loving our deck.  We used a little bit last year since it was done about halfway through the summer but we are really been enjoying having it during this spring.  Belle wants to play outside all the time and its so nice to have a place for her to play since we still don't have grass. She has a slide, picnic table, and sometimes a pool all on the deck for her.

Belle has started to want to dress-up.  She opens her closet and pulls dresses down and wants me to put them on her.  Here is one of her favorite things-a tutu and mom's shoes (she loves to put on other peoples shoes-its so funny).

Apple Blossom Parade

We went to the Appleblossom parade in Wenatchee 2 weeks ago.  I have been going to the parade for almost my entire life, its a fun family tradition.  We always go to the parade and than have a picnic. Here are Jarod and Belle hanging out watching the parade.

Belle loved playing at the park we had out picnic at.  She would hardly eat anything cause she just wanted to go and play.


Circus

We went to the Shriner's Circus that was traveling through Moses Lake a couple weeks ago.  It was such a great circus (it was fairly small in size but it definitely was worth the money).


Waiting for the circus to begin.  Belle threw up in the car about 30 minutes before going into the circus and we had to wipe her and her seat all down and run into Walmart to get her some extra clothes. She was fine the rest of the night-don't know if she was carsick or what?

The hula hoop lady-she was very entertaining.

These were sisters I think (maybe even twins). They did several different stunts and the last one was the lowest girl was holding on with her teeth.

This little boy was so cute and amazing.  He was balancing on all of these rolls and skateboards with no one hanging onto him.

The elephants were the finale. They did a lot of tricks.   

It was so fun and Belle really liked it.  There were motorcycle tricks, horses, dogs, acrobats, elephants, and clowns. Such a fun night as a family.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Coupons and Smiles

I love couponing.  I go about once a week sometimes less.  I feel that I get so much for my time and money.  I spend about 3-4 hours a week is all and I get so much for that.  Rite Aid is one of my favorite stores. I get so much there and they are always so helpful and friendly.  Below was one of my better shopping trips.  I spent less than $3.50 for all of this stuff.  4 bottles of Old Spice body wash with a free deodorant and 15 bottles of dish soap. (please ignore the eating baby in the background!)



Belle loves all the Primary songs that we sing in Nursery or for family night.  Since learning the Smile song (if you chance to meet a frown...) she now smiles with her fingers on her face when asked to smile for a picture.  She does love to have her picture taken and always wants to see the picture after you take it.  (still in jammies with hair not done)