Surprise!!!

Ma and Grandpa Ardern from New Zealand randomly called Wade 2 weeks go. Wade was a bit confused. It was his Dad's voice but kept looking at the phone which had an 801 area code number. Turns out, they just flew into Salt Lake City! Ian was being called to be an Area Seventy during this April General Conference so they flew him and Paula up for meetings, etc. Wow. Everyone has always "known" about this. It was only a matter of time. He is a GREAT man and he's part of our family!

Anyway, the Monday after general conference both of them headed up to our house for a week of shopping, fun and cuddles with Jack and Charlotte. Crazy they missed seeing the baby by a couple of weeks but we aren't complaining. It was a great visit and Charlotte and Jack just loved being around Ma and Grandpa. And I had a great time because my hip didn't hurt ONCE while they were here! Miracle!! I think it's because they took a lot of the attention and lifting, etc. off of me. What a wonderful relief. And the other neat thing was that Wade was on Spring Break too!! What are the chances?! It was a great surprise and I'm really glad they were able to come visit us. We know they'll be able to visit for the next 4 or 5 years for April Conference so that's going to be a wonderful thing to look forward to :)

Charlotte is cooking with Ma!

There was a crazy snow storm the night Ma and Grandpa got here. Ma was SO excited!!! So were the kids and had to have pictures in it!!

The night it snowed.....ha ha ha. Ma holding a big scoop of snow!!

There are more pics of when Ma and Grandpa were here but they are not on my camera. I'll post them once I get them ;)

Wedding cake

Side/diagonal view

I did it! Well, I said the cake in December was my last wedding cake but I neglected to tell some people who I've made a cake for them before that I don't do them anymore...so I was asked by Elora, who I taught in Laurels, to make one for her. I couldn't say NO!! BUT THIS IS MY LAST ONE (unless it's for family I think...) until the kids are in school/grown up. HA HA HA. With a baby coming, it's already stressful with the kids. ANYWHO. Elora picked out everything for the cake. There were some things that I couldn't find/do but I LOVE how this cake turned out. The flowers were made by hand, (not the big poofy fake ones ;) and Gretchen made the swirly wires) and I need to give credit to Wade in helping me figure out the right dimensions for the red fondant and for stacking, moving the cake, etc. and helping me out with the kids. Oh and it only took 20 hrs...So now that this cake is finally done, my brain can focus all on the baby, Jack and Charlotte and Wade.

Less than one month

I've got less than a month to go. 30 days. 36 weeks on Saturday. Blech. FOREVER. ha ha. I know it always goes fasts for everyone else who's not pregnant but I feel like I'm going to explode. There's no way I'm taking pictures of myself. I feel like poo so why??? No, I'm grateful that we're able to have this baby but it really does take a toll on you. I went to the dr. this morning and I'm dialated to a 2. Just like Jack! The baby is head down too. So all is well with this one. I just hope the time doesn't crawl right now. It has the last 3 weeks and I'm dying. No. I just feel miserable. I've got a really hurt hip and I didn't have it with the other two. It doesn't feel like the nerve or muscle either. It's the bone. It's not good. But I'm excited to start getting Charlotte's old things out and all dusted off and the clothes to be put in the dresser, etc. I want Charlotte to help and have her be excited too! I'm going to start that on Saturday after I'm done with this wedding cake...I know I know. I said I'll never do one again but I neglected to inform some of the people I've done cakes for that I don't do them anymore so don't pass on my name kind of thing but then when someone asks, it's SO hard to say no. So I'm going to make it VERY CLEAR I'm done. Especially with a new baby. It's alright though. The cake is going to be a lot less stressful since it's with fondant! Yeah!

Jack and Charlotte are doing AWESOME. Jack cracks me up all the time. Lately, when he falls over and gets an owie (owee???) he comes over and wants me to kiss it. This morning he hit his elbow while eating breakfast and he kept his arm raised until I came over to make it better. Makes me feel loved and it's so cute.

And for Charlotte, I think you'll be amazed at all the progress she's made. I'm so proud of her. She's such a good girl and is so loving (unless she's being a stinker. ha ha) and she just makes me happy.

St. Patricks Day

Well, St. Patricks day was a fun day for all of us esp Charlotte at school. She dressed up in green and had a fun time with the naughty Leprechaun! Wade and Charlotte made a trap together to catch the naughty Leprechaun and she ended up with some gold coins because of it! It was cute. You should hear her say Shamrock and Leprechaun. Wade wore Jack's greenstone under his tie and if anyone asked if he was wearing green, he'd show it off! And for dinner we had Corned beef, steamed cabbage, biscuits and mashed potatoes. It was awesome and am excited to more each year!!

Slowing down...

It's been so long since I last posted. I am getting SO horrible at it. I haven't been taking very many pictures lately and every time I get on the computer the kids run to my side and I can't accomplish very much. So by the time they're in bed, I'd rather just veg on the couch with Wade and enjoy the precious few hours with him. And right now, I don't know where the camera is. I think I took one or two pictures of the kids but oh well.

Well, believe it or not, I've got 6 1/2 weeks left. It seriously has flown by but starting at about 8 weeks to go, I've been pretty tired and time is not going by fast enough!!! ha ha. This pregnancy seems to be similar to Charlotte's. Pretty easy going except I'm huge and I get a really sore hip for some reason. Didn't happen with the last two pregnancies so I don't know what's up with that. She is SO active. Just like Charlotte. And I have a lot of heartburn, gross I KNOW, but I read that it might not just be an old wive's tale that this is a sign that your baby will have a lot of hair. Who knows?! I guess time will tell!!! ha ha.

Just remembered I sent these to my email from my phone!! Yay pictures!!! ha ha

(Wade made Jack a hat at a restaurant a few weeks ago. Jack loved it!!)

Jack is doing so great. He's starting to become a bit independent. A little too much, I think. Within this last week, he's been wanting to walk to the car, doesn't want to sit in the grocery cart and has been pulling his pants off. He even runs away the instance he's naked so he can have a grand ole time without clothes. It's funny but annoying when you need to get him dressed so you can somewhere on time. He he. He is so funny. He does these funny faces/reactions that just makes you bust out laughing.

(Oops, this is a little blurry. Doesn't she look grown up here?!!)

Charlotte is making INCREDIBLE progress. She amazes me all the time. She loves to sing Happy Birthday but just a couple days in the car, she pronounced the words quite clearly. She even comes up to you and says, Hi! How are you? Clear as day. Seriously, a miracle. She loves to play with Jack and loves to hug and kiss him and even tickle him but he does NOT like it. And it's sad to tell her that Jack doesn't like your kisses. he he. But she does it anyway. He'll eventually like it. For FHE lately, we've been concentrating on how to say our prayers with Charlotte and Jack. Charlotte ALWAYS has to say the prayers. Sometimes we have to say, no, it's mommy's turn. ha ha. But she loves saying them and she is learning so quickly how to say them. We are so proud of her. Even Jack wants to say them, but the second you tell him it's his turn he just smiles at you and doesn't say anything. It's so cute.

The kids both love to point out where the temple is and we've got this awesome book full of Church pictures that they have to see every night before bed. But they go through that book countless times each day and never get tired of it.

So yeah. That's it. Now that Wade's Bishop, things are a little bit more busy but not too bad. Sundays are quite long without him and Tuesdays are interview nights but unless there's an emergency or other things here and there, he's home most of the time. So the adjustment isn't too bad. I think, when's it going to get more crazy? It's just the beginning but maybe it won't...who knows. But he's doing a great job and I love that I am still (and the kids of course) the priority...: )

Valentine's Day

Well, since we had our anniversary 5 days prior to Valentine's Day, we didn't go all out for it. I felt like we already had it but I still want to celebrate it. I think we kind of do it as a family thing. So I made french toast that morning and cut out hearts with a cookie cutter (thank you, Crystal) and Charlotte LOVED it. After that, it was an uneventful morning. Just getting ready for church. But I set out the chocolate/candy valentine's I bought for Wade and the kids just before we left. Wade bought me some nice chocolate too. That was fun to eat! Then off to church. It was an emotional day for us. It was a good day though. Our bishopric was released and Wade was called to be the new Bishop. Yeah, crazy huh? It's not a bad thing. It's just a new and overwhelming thing. I'm still in shock about it but yeah. He's 32 too! YOUNG. I know others have been younger but seriously, I still feel like a kid. I can't be grown up now. It's weird looking at him and thinking, you're my Bishop. ha ha. He's just Wade to me. And that's a good thing. But after church, we had 30 min to feed the kids and get them to a babysitter so we could get some orientation training/advice from the stake presidency and their wives. We got home and we put the kids to bed, started our valentine's dinner which was just frozen chicken cordon bleu (nasty) and then had sundaes for dessert. How romantic, huh?! No, it was just a different day for us. It was better than last year's Valentine's Day (Charlotte losing her hearing and the accident) and so I can't complain to much. I just hope next year's Love day is BORING.

Go COLTS!

Well, the Superbowl was Feb. 7th, right? ha ha. I don't even remember or care. How un-American! Nah! Growing up, we never watched t.v. on Sunday. NOTHING. So Superbowl was out. I didn't care about it then and frankly, I don't care about it now. Well, the ads are hilarious when you watch them on the internet and the food party sounds AWESOME. But that's about it. I would definitely go to one only for the food. If Wade was a football fan, I'm sure I'd be saying something totally different right now. But we're rugby fans. he he. Don't get me wrong. I like football. I like playing football (for fun) and I watched my high school team play and BYU play. Loved it. but other than that...could care less. But back to this post! Charlotte's teacher is from Indiana so I'm assuming that's where the Colts team is from (correct me please!) so in class, they learned to cheer for the Colts and wrote in their journals about the Colts. So the video below shows Charlotte cheering for the Colts and of course Jack caught on about it and did it too! It's so cute. And even now, everytime she looks in her journal, she yells Go Colts when it's the Colt's page. :)

When I talk about the fishy that died, well, about 2 weeks ago, two random students gave Wade fish they just bought from Walmart. Seriously random! So when he came home, Charlotte was SO excited to see those fish. So we went to Walmart and bought a tank and it came with rocks and leaves and food. We got the fish put in their new home. Charlotte fed the fish and Jack and Charlotte had a grand ole' time. Well, one week later, the white fish died. (One was white and the other was orange). So we told Charlotte the fish died and flushed it down the toilet. But this wasn't brand new to her. Shortly after returning to school from Christmas break, the class fish died. So we just copied what the teacher did. And Charlotte waved bye bye to the fish and that was that! It's kind of funny. She tells us the fishy died but no emotions. he he. But it was good.

Valentine's Day prep...

I have tried to get ready for Valentine's Day for awhile in February but never really got around to it. A few of my things are in boxes in the garage when we packed up during our "for sale" time. Plus there were a few things too high to reach in a closet (and I forgot to remind Wade to help me get them down) so I wasn't too decorated this year. I hope I don't scar the kids for life because of it. ha ha. But I wanted them to enjoy what Valentine's Day was about so we made some hearts the week before and stuck them on the window. They had THE best time making them and decorating them. I love it. I am going to make Shamrocks with them for St. Patrick's Day now just because of how much they loved this activity. I did end up getting some cute projects that Charlotte made from school up on the doors in the house too so decorating turned out to be okay.

I know it's blurry but I love Jack's expression!

Jack was seriously posing for Wade in all these pictures. He was such a crack up.

I know...but this was the only good one of just Charlotte.

Posin' again!

They were SO excited to get their pictures taken with the hearts.

Yeah, I know. I'm not supposed to take a picture like this. But I don't care. They were SO proud of their hearts!!!

Living Aquarium

A few weeks back, Wade and I decided to take a quick trip down to Sandy to see the Living Aquarium with our good friends, the Tippets! The Wyatts were unable to come (sadness!) but we were able to catch up in a spur of the moment decision with Jen and the kids. Charlotte LOVES Kya and Brennon. She talks about them NON stop! I love it. They are so good to her and play with her and make her feel so wanted. So it was good to go and see her obsession of fish too. Seriously.

I love Jen's camera! Incredible pictures!!!

Blogger won't let me rearrange pictures in the post so this should go last but Brennon had a great time with all these fish! He's a cutie. And yep, that's the same shirt as Jack's! Great taste.

Eagerly waiting for Jen and the kids to arrive!!!

When I told Charlotte we were going to go down and see lots of fish, she HAD to bring her little fish net toy from the bathtub. She held onto it the whole drive down plus for a long time during our visit here. It was really cute and I loved how she understood what was going on. She really had the best time.

We were hungry and so decided to eat at the cafe inside the aquarium. We thought, yeah those are reasonable prices. Okay. So it's NOT. All you get is a sandwich. No chips, no drink! I have to say it was a good sandwich but not for that price. he he. Kya ordered a Peanut butter and Jam sandwich. Yeah, it was a crustable! Seriously folks!!! So, my advice? Don't eat at this cafe. Go somewhere else. You'll thank me later.

I love Jen's camera! Most of my photos turned out awful. So I'm glad she had her beauty with her.

Looking at the brochures before lunch. Deciding what to see first, I guess.

I LOVE this picture! Jack had the best time with Wade. Poor Wade. Chased him around and around and around. It was so cute though.

Interesting reading, I think...

I love these faces!!! Kya is SO adorable. You should hear her play with toys. Her imagination is incredible.

Yeah, Charlotte wouldn't touch the starfish. But loved looking at it.

We were able to see the stingrays and pet them as well. Well, I didn't touch one. I found it creepy yet worried I would die a death just like Steve Irwin, bless his heart. One came up out of the water so high, I screamed like a baby. It was pretty funny. But it scared Charlotte. She loved looking at them close but wouldn't touch them either. That's my girl.

After our visit at the Aquarium, we went down to Jen's house and hung out til her husband got off of work. Well, Wade went off to BYU to choose a BYU hoodie that was his Christmas present. I kid you not...he was gone for an hour and a half and would have been longer if it didn't shut at 6pm. But he came back with an awesome hoodie and I'm so glad he found one he really likes. So I was glad to have some girl time with Jen and the kids too. I wish we lived closer so we could hang out so much more. But anywho, we eventually went out to eat. We went to In 'n Out. Yeah. The fries were nasty and the burger was alright. I don't see all the hype about the burger. Seriously. Not trying to be rude. It's just a burger. But had to try it to see what it was like! Then we were on our way back to Logan. It was good to get away and have some fun together!

Happy Anniversary, Wade!

Portland, Oregon Temple. Married on the 9th February 2002

I can't believe another year has come and gone! Today is our 8 year wedding anniversary and seriously, it doesn't feel like 8 years. It has gone by SO fast! I have had the best time being married to Wade. He makes life fun and easy...easier. I can't imagine life without him and I'm so thankful we've been married in the temple for time and all eternity. I love him and my little family SO much and to know we will be together forever is the best gift I could ever have. Our Heavenly Father loves all of us so much that we can have the opportunity to have eternal families. And I'm so grateful that this is only the beginning. How cool is that?!