Love you

I finally took the camera outside with me the other day and got one picture- ha! We've been playing outside a lot lately and the girls love to "chalk" as Elizabeth says. Riding bikes/cars is also lots of fun!

Elizabeth likes for Daddy to hold her like a baby and say "baby, baby" and it's so sweet that she lets him cuddle her that way. Well, Madilynn wanted to be held too, so this is what happened. And Daddy sang rock a bye baby to them, they are just laughing!
This is why the post is titled "love you"...
Wednesday we were playing downstairs and I told the girls it was time to head upstairs for naptime. Madilynn went on up, and Elizabeth (playing with her babies) said, "night, night baby la-lu" while she laid her babies down for nap. I couldn't believe it, I thought it was so cute. It was the first time I've heard her trying to say "love you". Then last night we were driving home (late) from our home group dinner and we were seeing if she could say it and she did, she said plain as day, "love you".
So, this morning I thought I'd try to capture it on video, and here it is!

32 weeks

Here we are at 32 weeks Some things to note:

Only 7 weeks left. We haven't scheduled the c-section yet, but we have a pretty good idea of when it will be.

My belly feels huge

Not sure if I've noted this yet, but girl #3 is on the left side of my belly (same as Elizabeth).

She's still making a lot of big movements and moves a lot. I notice the movements most when I am still. So, in the afternoon (during girls naptime) and in the evening when I rest and go to bed.

Michael and I have been able to sit together and just watch my belly move all around. We are excited and can't wait to meet this little girl!

Dr. appt. yesterday went well - measuring exactly 32 weeks and her heartbeat was 158bpm. I've gained a total of 13lbs. so far.

Her room is basically done. All I have left is to clean out/organize the closet and drawers and wash everything.

Elizabeth has noticed that my belly is bigger and find it hard to get comfortable on my lap. She has resorted to cuddling with Daddy a lot more lately! I don't think he minds!

Daddy stayed home with Elizabeth while I was at the doctor yesterday. When I got home this is what Elizabeth was doing, all by herself. Daddy was taking pictures of her. Madilynn does this with her some, but I've never seen her stand the books up by herself.

All done, she had to use all the books she could find upstairs!

Madilynn has been learning about bugs for the last couple of weeks in preschool. Today they brought home a "baby grasshopper" in this little container. She talked to it the whole way home from school and when she got out of the car in the garage she said, "you're home". So funny! She's had to check on it lots and wonders if it sleeps during naptime and night-time.

Daddy's Day!

Father's Day 2011

Elizabeth trying on "Daddy's shoes" Sunday afternoon
Madilynn dancing

Sunday was a cool rainy day here, so we hadn't made any plans to do anything outside. We spent the morning at church then we took Daddy to eat lunch at Olive Garden. After naps we spent the late afternoon/evening finishing up some projects around the house. With baby girl #3's arrival quickly approaching we have been trying to get our guest bedrooms ready.

guest room #1 has looked like this from the beginning...

However...guest room #2 looked like this when we moved in...

Then we added some boxes/storage containers and it became a storage room for a couple of months. A couple of weeks ago we started working on this room - Michael put in the light fixtures and wall outlets, then the flooding disaster occurred. Basically the entire wall with the window on it had to be ripped out and re-done. Well, the wall was finished a couple of weeks ago, then Michael got the trim back on and the wall re-painted. So, Sunday we installed the blinds and put down a carpet remnant. (We decided to go this route for now instead of having carpet installed right away - it's pretty pricey even for this size of room.)

And we finally have guest room #2 ready...

We have a queen size air mattress in there for now, but we hope to get a "real bed" in there in the near future!

So that's how Daddy spent his Father's Day. We did a little cheer for him afterward saying, "Go Daddy!" the girls just kept saying it. They love him soooo much by the way!!

Daddy is taking the day tomorrow for some fly fishing since it's supposed to be a beautiful day and one of the warmest so far (temps in the 80's). Have fun Daddy - you deserve it!!

Elizabeth at 21 months...

Thought I should give a little update on what Elizabeth has been up to lately...

She's just growing so fast and thinks she needs to do everything Madilynn does. They love to read books together too. Just today they were sitting together in their room reading, then this afternoon (while they are supposed to be going to sleep) I went in their room to find Elizabeth laying in Madilynn's bed right beside her and they were looking at a book - so cute. She calls Madilynn "Ma-Ma" all the time. It sounds very different from when she says, "Mommy".

Elizabeth loves to give hugs and kisses and lots of times she's the one who will ask for a hug! She can say and identify her elbow, arm, and knee now. She still calls fingers and toes "wee". I'm not really sure why except from the this little piggy rhyme.

Yesterday while Madilynn was at school Elizabeth had fun playing with the jewelry all by herself! She missed Madilynn so much while she was gone. When I was getting her out of the car to go in and pick up Madilynn she said, "Yeah! Ma-Ma".
The last few weeks she's been starting to show an interest in the potty. She can say, "pee pee on the potty". We'll ask her and take her and she's gone several times, but I'm not sure she knows before she needs to go yet. Now she'll tell me when her diaper is wet, or she'll say "pee pee on the potty" and I take her in there and she's just gone in her diaper. But, we're working on it! As she gets more and more used to it, hopefully she'll figure it all out.

She loves to play outside. She likes to explore and check everything out especially rocks. She says, "rock", and she'll normally carry at least one around with her the whole time she's outside. Occasionally I've caught her with one in her mouth. She can swing on the big girl swing and go down the slide all by herself. She'll also ask for "chalk" and color on the driveway with Madilynn.

She can differentiate between milk, juice, and water. She loves her milk with her meal almost too much. And lately it's been like chugging the milk from her sippy cup and not eating very much. So today at lunch I gave her a big cup with milk for the first time...
She did well drinking out of it, but we had two little spills. One spill was just after this picture was taken!

We've been starting to work on colors and ABC's lately. She can say a lot of the colors just repeating me, but she's not identifying them just yet.

Monday I got a couple of videos of her saying some new words that she just said that day for the first time. The first video is her saying, "yellow", just repeating after me. And the second video is of her saying, "Jasmine". She and Madilynn had been reading a princess book in their "tent" and Madilynn got her to say it!

Also, she'll point to my belly and say what sounds like "baby" and other times she just says, "belly button". We've tried to tell her there's a little baby in Mommy's belly, but I don't think she really gets it. She is noticing though, that it's not very comfortable on my lap anymore, and my belly is kind of in her way. When we read books together I've had to sit her up beside me instead.

Well, that's all I can think of right now, but I'm sure there are lots of other things she's doing or saying. I just know she is changing so fast right now and learning new things daily and it's so fun for me to see!

Half Marathon

Daddy ran his first half-marathon this past Saturday in 2hrs. and 27min.! Go Daddy!!! It was at Bear Lake about 45min from our house. We didn't get to cheer him on at the finish line, but stayed home instead (Mommy wasn't up for the curvy drive through the canyon to get there Sat. morn.). So right when he walked through the door I got this picture...

That would be his participation award around his neck. And Elizabeth had already stolen his water bottle.

Here's what the girls have spent lots of time doing lately...
coloring! And Elizabeth is getting pretty good! The last few times we've moved from trying to eat the crayons so much to actually coloring with them - yeah Elizabeth!

Friday night there was a cool rainbow above our house at sunset...this was all I could fit in the picture. But you're not seeing the other half.

Sunday all ready for church, and loving on Daddy!

They love their Daddy so much!

Last night when it was time for them to get ready for bed Daddy had gone downstairs to paint that room. Madilynn was trying to get me to let them go downstairs and play even though they wouldn't be able to be in there with him, but they could be "close to him". I though that was very sweet, but I still had them get ready for bed anyway...

30 weeks

Only 9 weeks to go!! I feel like it's going to FLY by!

Here we are at 30 weeks...

At my dr. appointment last week...I'm still measuring right on, baby girls heartbeat was 163bpm, and so far I've gained a total of 10lbs. Everything is still going fairly well, although I've realized that as my belly is getting bigger and the pressure is increasing I'm having to take it a little easier and rest more often. Baby girl moves around a lot - making lots of big movements! At night when I sit to relax or go to bed she just starts moving around like crazy and it takes a while to get to sleep! I feel like she moves more than Elizabeth did. We just can't wait to see what she'll be like. What she'll look like and what kind of personality she'll have!

On another note: Elizabeth has been sick the last couple of days with a virus we've never heard of before, but is supposedly common in the springtime here for kids. She's had a high fever and these ulcers in the back of her throat. Anyways she hasn't felt too great and last night I caught her resting on the couch "reading" her book. She's pointing to and saying, "bear". Then she sings what she can of twinkle twinkle little star. I realized I didn't have much on video of her talking/singing and thought I better catch it while I can.

Fishing Trip and the Park!

Last Saturday was beautiful! Daddy & Madilynn planned a little fishing trip - first of the season. After lunch they gathered up their stuff and headed out to Lake Mantua. (I sent the camera with him and these are the two pictures I got!)

Just Beautiful!!! (i'm a little jealous)
Turns out the water was still freezing and no fish were biting. They are holding out a couple more weeks for some warmer weather then I'm sure they'll try again!
When they got home...first they sat down for some ice cream and then they said lets go to the park. Elizabeth had just gotten up from her nap, so we all headed to the park.

Ready to go down the slide - she's still getting used to sliding especially on new ones!

saying, "cheese"

Then Sunday morning all ready for church...

I couldn't decide which ones to post, so I decided the grandparents would like to see all three of them - Elizabeth's different poses:

classic - big smile, eyes closed

watching Madilynn...awe

trying to tell me something maybe??

Well we had a great weekend and the weather was just great! However, Sunday evening was a different story. We had a flooding issue in our downstairs extra bedroom/storage room (good thing there's no carpet in there yet it's just concrete!), when we used an outdoor faucet for the first time and the pipe had frozen/busted during the winter. So it leaked about 15-20 gallons down the wall and into the floor of the room. The water was on for about 10 minutes before we realized what was happening and got the shop vacs to work. Monday Michael tore down the wall and got all the wet insulation out and we let it dry. We've had someone repairing the wall this week and it should be done tomorrow! Then we'll be repainting the room and continuing to get the room all finished, so we can have 2 guest rooms ready by the time baby arrives!