the yellow romper

is this not the cutest thing you've ever seen?

thank you target

for providing such cute

and inexpensive baby clothes

i can not wait to meet our little girl who will wear it this summer

a first

today for the first time

noah thought to get juice out all by himself

and instead of asking me for a cup of it

he drank straight from the container

and he was so proud of himself

he said, "mom, look!!"

and it was all fun and games until he gulped too much

and choked a little

the whole thing was really cute

and i'm glad he was so proud to show me

after he was done i was putting it away

and thought, oh well

i'm not too concerned with germs so i'll put it back in the refrigerator

and we can all drink it later

until i noticed a popsicle stick inside

so, we'll just call the rest noah's 

crazy.

you remember the bedding michael bought me for Christmas?

well i love it

but i was starting to feel a little crazy

when i lost one of the shams

a month or two ago

we haven't even had the set very long

and i hate losing things anyway

so...

today i was washing our bedding

and when i went to put everything back together

both shams were there

i think

i had both of them on one pillow

and that's where the missing one was

it felt really thick when i took it off

who does that?!

i'll blame it on pregnancy..

spring break again

i just assumed noah would have the same spring break as michael

but..he didn't

the preschool follows the school district schedule 

and not the wsu schedule

so he gets two spring breaks this year

and he only had one week of school in between

his spring break starts today

i'm so happy to have him home again

i'd better enjoy my time with just two kids while it lasts

summer will be a little trickier i'm sure

with three kids
plans for this week include
swimming, playing at the park,
the palouse discovery center,
baking cookies, watching movies
and a few easter preparations
woo hooo

excited for the weekend

noah starts soccer tomorrow

and we're totally excited

reason for concern

within a 24 hour period

three different women

all my same religion

all moms

of two children each

with husbands in school

and kids similar ages

have told me

how glad

relieved

happy

they are

not

to be pregnant right now

with no provocation from me

i wasn't asking

"is this a good idea?"

as i'm six months along

expecting my third child

that i'm excited about

and we planned to concieve

they each said they feel so overwhelmed

and while i have days like that

i'm really not overwhelmed as a mother

should i be concerned?

do they know something i don't?

mmmmm popcorn

just a little afternoon movie party

dear hazel,

I think you are the cutest thing around.

I love your new hair cut.

I love that you care so much about what you wear.

I love that you know what's best.

And I love that you will only get dressed if it includes shoes and a coat.

Or a sweater.
Oh and I am totally loving that your response for yes
isn't yeah or uh-huh anymore
it's
wahoo!

birthday plans

one day old noah

noah's 4th birthday is 3 weeks away

and while i've thought for a long time about how to celebrate his next birthday

maybe a circus theme with him as a clown

cute decorations

and all his little friends over

michael and i like the idea better of birthdays being just a family day

and we do whatever the special person wants to all day long

until the kids care more about parties

so noah decided a while ago

that for his birthday he needs

to go mini golfing

so that is definitely what we will be doing

also he would like a rainbow cake

and cupcakes

i think i'll let him choose whether to go to preschool or not

but if he wants to go i'll take cupcakes to his class

we also like not buying the kids presents but doing fun things

and making memories instead

and then noah loves to spend his birthday money from grandparents

on toys that he chooses

last year we went to the seattle children's museum

and he looooooved it

i am so excited for his birthday

but it's also a lot of pressure

as the mom

to make everyone's day perfect

then after noah's birthday

michael's birthday is almost exactly a month later

then hazel's birthday is 11 days after that

i can't wait!!

kid-less in seattle

we have had such a fun spring break so far

last weekend we drove up to seattle

spent some time with my sister and her family

then we went up the peninsula to see

our parents

they live close to each other

so we got to see both sets quite a bit

here's a picture of our growing family

we forget to take those sometimes

we even got to go to church with both sets of our parents

and have lunch together afterward

noah loved all the attention

then this guy and i got to leave our cares (kids) behind for a few days

and go on a babymoon

if michael looks a little nervous here

it's because we haven't been alone in a while

and i think i intimidate him 

while in seattle

we relaxed and shopped a lot

michael bought me pretty much anything i liked

so we stuffed this beauty from ikea in our trunk

michael bought me this little wristlet from coach

so i could ditch my diaper bag

michael totally spoiled me

it was a nice change from our typically very frugal lifestyle

we bought some new clothes

i decided i'm done with my new years resolution

and it was so nice to shop

i hate self deprivation

 michael now has jeans without holes in the knees

here i am trying an oversized flower in my hair at anthropologie

we found some bubblegum ice cream

we had so much fun swimming in our hotel pool

going out to dinner

seeing a movie

going to the temple

sleeping in

enjoying each other without interruptions

and laying around

but...

of course we missed our kiddy cats

and we're glad to be home

my view

23 weeks

reasons to be excited

next week is spring break

i'll get to actually spend time with my husband

we'll get to visit with family

shop

drink slurpees

have a babymoon

noah only has 1 more swimming lesson 

i should have known better than to

sign him up for 16 swimming lessons over an 8 week period

that michael couldn't go to with me 

so i got to wrestle hazel every time all by myself
he has progressed a lot, though, so i'm glad we did it

i started my first project for the nursery

painting some lamps gray

and i wish i had painted them sooner

because they look a million times better

next project is fixing up 2 little dressers we found at the dumpster

we are all feeling good

i haven't had a coughing fit
causing the need to vomit
or pee spontaneously 

in a few days

and noah and hazel are feeling much better

though hazel has some teeth that are about to pop through

pink gray and white

i think i've made a decision regarding this baby

her nursery colors

she may not have a name yet

but i'll definitely be getting started on her nursery soon

here's an example of the colors we'll be using

cardboard playhouse can be found here

sleeping beauty

babymoon

you may not know this

but there was a time michael and i didn't have kids

it was a week

in hawaii

right after our wedding

we called it our honeymoon

it was wonderful

other than the nagging feeling that i'd just left my baby  (14 month old) for the first time

because i had

but we enjoyed our week of life without a child

then when we were pregnant with hazel

we decided a to take another mini honeymoon

and had a night or two in a hotel in seattle

and shopped for our little girl who was on the way

and called it a babymoon

and well now we are expecting yet another little baby girl
and thanks to grandparents

we're going on another babymoon

so we can pretend just for a few days

that we are a couple of kids

not parents

and enjoy each other again

though we don't have the resources to go back to hawaii
so we'll probably be a lot less tan afterward

dang it

not yet, hazel

early this morning

hazel wanted to first get dressed

then get shoes on

and her coat

then she grabbed noah's backpack, too

and said, "go bye bye"

i think she thinks she's more ready for school than she is

as you can see, as soon as i grabbed the camera

she first yawned, then rubbed her eyes, and sucked her thumb

i think she'll have to outgrow her nap dependency

before she's ready for school

torture

we used to have a weekly tradition

on thursdays we would get pizza

and slurpees

and watch the office

as well as the rest of the nbc line up

it was bliss

i looked forward to it all week

and then michael had to ruin everything and make us move to pullman

where we don't get reception on our tv other than pbs

and there aren't 7Elevens
so no slurpees

and just as i was going to write this post

my mom called to make sure i am watching the office

because she is

and it's really good

such a good episode

then she had to go all the sudden

because the commercial was ending

and she didn't want to miss anything

and i have to wait until it's on hulu tomorrow

i die
ps: if you ruin any of it for me....

choosing a name

as you know

the names at the top of our list

are olive and eleanor

with the middle name mae

and we cannot decide

i told michael the other day, "i like eleanor"

because i'd thought of it all day and felt like it was right

and we were settled

then the next day i couldn't help feel sad not to use olive

which i've liked since i was little 

thanks to my great aunt olive

and i also love beatrice

my great grandma's name

but michael doesn't like beatrice that much 

and especially doesn't like "bea"

it was so much easier when we named hazel

because i had her name picked out for like four years

and michael liked it

so i told michael he has to choose between olive and eleanor

but..knowing michael....he won't be able to

see? this is what happens when two youngest children get married

we can't decide anything!

popcicles

noah does like them...i swear

i'm not sure why the mad face

hazel's not sure how she got a drip on her

she was so careful!

there's a happy boy

mini popcicles make us happy
noah likes that he gets popcicles
hazel like to do whatever noah does
and i like that they're small and slow melting
win win win

sick of sick

we've all been sick

noah got it first
and then passed it to the rest of us within a few days
and he finally just got his appetite back yesterday
he hadn't eaten in about a week
which is only a minor symptom
there's also a sore throat, cough and off and on fever
noah's finally back at school today after missing an entire week
hazel's been a trooper
she's teething and has this same garbage we do
but she's been pretty happy so that's nice
though her eyes are super goopy (another lovely symptom) so she looks terrible
michael's ok, he's functioning fine
but has the gross cough we all do
and i was ok until sunday when it all started to really hit me
the worst part it my ultra sensitive pregnancy gag reflex is making me vomit
every time something is in my throat or i've coughed
which is all the time
so i have like early pregnancy morning sickness because of this sickness
not fun
and to top it all my ear started hurting last night
and then i couldn't sleep because of it
so i took tylenol and used a warm compress
and i finally fell asleep
only to wake up with some hearing loss
i already have permanent hearing loss in my other ear
so i'm feeling pretty deaf today
which was nice when hazel screamed in my ear
and noah bothered me to wake up this morning
but anyway, i went to the doctor and hopefully it'll get better soon
sure could use a sister here to kiss me on  the cheek
or take care of my kids...whatever

newborn onesies

i bought a pack of newborn onesies

since our baby is due this summer

and it gets crazy hot here

she probably won't wear much more than onesies for a while

but of course a plain onesie won't due

so i've got to decorate them

i'm really enjoying the little flower rosettes 

but i also want to applique some onesies

any cute ideas of what to applique?