Baby #3

We are happy to say that we are expecting a new baby May 10th. I have been really sick with this pregnancy and have just started feeling better these last few days, hence the new post. The only thing different with this pregnancy is we found out that I have a blood sack. I got sent to see a specialist, she said that it should go away and that I shouldn't worry unless I started bleeding. And there has been no bleeding and things are still progressing. Steve and I think that it will be a girl, but it would be awesome to have a boy too.

Parker started preschool. We ended up doing a preschool with some girls in our ward. Parker has really liked it. Here is Parker on his first day of school. Paige couldn't help getting her backpack too and getting in on the picture fun. 

My mom got to come out for a week and spend time with us. We went up to Kirtland, OH and did some site seeing. Then we got to go to the Columbus Zoo. It was huge and very well done. The whole time Parker wanted to see the gorillas and of course they were like the farthest thing away, but we made it and they did not disappoint.

For Halloween Parker wanted to be Luigi and so we let Paige be Princess Peach. Here is a picture of them at Parker's preschool Halloween Party. 

Parker's Birthday

Parker had his 4th birthday on Saturday. We were lucky enough to have his first friend birthday party. Parker wanted a Mario Brothers themed party. I couldn't find any decorations so I turned to the internet to find some ideas. We got a playground for outside for Parker's birthday and just let the kids play out on it and then we pulled out our bouncy house and also got a slip and slide and had a kiddie pool. We just let all of the kids play outside the whole time, except when we did food/cake/presents. The party went really well and Parker is already planning his birthday party for next year.... Pirates! We will see, it could change.

I made rice cripsey stars, marshmallow mushroom toads, and Oreo truffle bombs. All in keeping with the Mario theme.

The party bags.

Mario castle cake.

We were lucky enough to have Steve's parents come out for Parker's birthday. They got the kids a wheel barrow that pulls behind our lawn mower. Our kids LOVE it! Here is how our kids use to ride the lawn mower.

I have started practicing the piano, kind of, and Paige and Parker have decided that they like to play the piano too. I find them all the time playing all the time.

When we were in Phoenix last month we went to the Sea Life Aquarium with my mom. It was so cool.

We were in Phoenix for my sister Amanda's wedding. I was able to make her wedding cake for her. It was my first wedding cake, but I think it turned out pretty well. Paige was with me when I was shopping for supplies for the wedding cake. She had a hard time with the jet lag. 3 hours is a long time.

Here is Blake and Amanda. We are so happy for them.

Here is a picture the three youngest cousins on Steve's side. Three cute girls!

Our 4th of July

For our 4th of July we went over to a friend's house and got to do some fireworks. They got some really cool fireworks and then we were able to see the firework show from their backyard. We weren't able to start the fireworks until it got dark, around 9:30pm and then the show started at 10:00pm. The kids were getting pretty tired, but didn't really notice because it was so cool.

We made some dirt dessert before we went over for fireworks and we told Parker that it was dirt and he didn't want to eat it. He finally saw that it had gummy worms in it and he thought that it would be alright to try them. He still wouldn't eat the pudding. After we told him that it was just pudding and cookie crumbs, we made him take a bite. You can see from his tears that he didn't believe us. He wouldn't eat any more after that. Paige on the other hand thought that it was yummy!

Chick fil a was giving away free food today if you dressed like a cow. So we made some costumes and went down there. Here are the kids in their cow costumes. Too bad I had to be the one taking the pictures so you didn't get to see me in mine. :)


Paige wanted to go see the cow too, but when she got about 3 feet from it, she changed her mind and only wanted to stay by me.

Ohio

Well we have been here for a month now. Steve's work paid for our first month at the Residence Inn and then we were on our own on finding a place. Our last day was on Easter so we had to move to the Comfort Inn (a much more affordable place) until we close on our house. We have about 3 weeks. I really miss the 2 bedrooms and kitchen/living area. We have been here 1 night in our studio type of hotel room and it is hard.

Well for Easter we did it small this year, knowing we would have to be packed up and out of our hotel that same morning, there wasn't a lot of time. We knew we would have no fridge for a few hours, since check out time and check in time leave a gap (so hard with kids and nap time and EVERYTHING was closed for Easter Sunday) . We decided to decorate the plastic eggs so we wouldn't have to deal with eggs going bad. We got a whole bunch of stickers and stuck them on the plastic eggs. Then we left them out and the Easter Bunny came and filled them with candy/toys and hid them around our hotel room. I would show you pictures, but we took them on Steve's phone and he is at work. We also got the kids pictures taken in their Easter outfits, but I haven't gotten them out of the car yet. So... look for them soon.

Here is a picture of our new house that we should (hopefully) close on in a few weeks. There have been way more problems closing then we have anticipated. Most of them coming from still owning our home in Arizona, but we think everything is figured out now.

Well Paige is just bouncing off the walls these days. She loves to climb and get on top of everything. She can get up on our couch at the hotel and has discovered the pleasure of indoor playgrounds. She will climb all through the tunnels and go down the slides. Parker will help her if she gets lost and can't figure out how to get down.

She also loves to go to time out with Parker, which is funny because Parker is usually in time out because he was being mean to Paige. Don't you just love Parker's face!

Parker has had a hard time not going to preschool these days. He has more spare time and he has discovered the love for photography. I will find him with my phone all the time taking pictures of us, his toys, and furniture. Here are some of his pictures he took.

Oh and have I mentioned how much it rains here! It is crazy. They say it is their rainy season and I believe it. I think we have gotten 12 inches in the past month. April showers brings May flowers right? Well that just means lots of hot chocolate for us. This week we are suppose to have 1 day that wont rain.

On the move

We moved out of our house and are looking to buy our next house in Ohio. We have put in a couple of offers, but nothing has taken yet. I forget how much I don't like the house buying process. Sure it is fun to look at houses, but the whole thing about putting in an offer and waiting to see if it is accepted is stressful.

Paige turned one a couple weeks ago and so we got together with some family and had a small party for her. It was hard because her birthday was the day after we moved out of our house, but I did get her cake done. She loves her stroller that she got. She pushes it everywhere. She has also learned that she loves riding on merry-go-rounds. If she sees one she will point to it and grunt. If we don't go to it she will try to get to it on her own. She weighs 19 pounds 15 ounces- 49% and she is 50% for her height, and 74% for her head. Parker helped me design Paige's cake and even helped me make it. He was so proud of it.

Goodbyes

We have been busy these past few weeks. We are moving to Dayton, Ohio in a couple of weeks. We had to find someone to rent our house before we could move. It was very surprising how quickly we rented our house. Our renters are moving in next week and we are going to move in with my parents for a couple of weeks before we make the big move. During those couple of weeks, Steve and I will be going out to Dayton to look at houses and get to know the area better. We get to leave our kiddos with my family for our trip. We have already found a house that we like. Steve saw it, I have only seen pictures, and we put an offer on it. We should find out in a couple of days if we got it.


On a sad note, we had to get rid of our dog Cesar. We will be staying in corporate housing when we first move out to Ohio and driving with Cesar, staying in hotels, living in temporary housing all would be HUGE headache. And we don't even think we can have him in the temporary housing. So we put up an ad to see if we could find him a loving family that would take really good care of him. Well this ad was also answered quickly. 15 minutes later we found someone who would be perfect for Cesar. He went home with them tonight and we are very sad and tears were shed for him. Poor Parker doesn't even know yet that his dog is gone. We didn't know how to break it to him. We will miss him, but we know he will be with a great family who will take really good care of him, probably better care than we would have even given him.