Easter 2011

We had a great Easter Sunday. Church was wonderful and we were able to have dinner with a good group of friends. We have so many blessings in our lives and I'm so grateful for the Savior and all that He did for us and the hope that comes with His resurrection.

These were our Easter family photos. I always forget to have someone take pictures for us and Keith and I were in need of a nasty close up after our Sunday naps.

Keith's parents were so sweet and sent us an Easter package. This cute dress was made by Keith's mom. Kenzie's in love with it and likes to twirl so I couldn't get a straight shot.

This is totally not Easter related, but we found this little guy a few weeks ago in "our backyard" and I had to include him in a post because it's been fun to go out and try to find him and catch him.

Springtime

Despite all of the crazy storms we've had here, spring has been beautiful. We go outside every chance we get and soak up the Vitamin D.

Kenz is such a tree hugger. When we go for walks, she has to hug every tree along the way and sometimes lays a big kiss on them. Not sure where she learned it, but I think the trees feel the most loved when she comes along.

This is Kenzie's new stand-in aunt, Sarah. She is so incredibly good with Mackenzie and last Sunday, Kenzie sat by her all of Sacrament meeting and wanted only Sarah to take her to nursery. She asks for her often.

We love having so many sudents in our complex. We get together often for BBQ's and once the weather warms up, volleyball.

Kenz was mad at me one day and stormed into my room and put herself to bed. It was great!

Oh our never ending battle with our windows. I took these as proof of how bad the rain had soaked my carpet, walls, blinds, ect. and they finally came out and tried to seal them again. Too bad it didn't work, we're just waiting on a sunny forecast so they can try to check them out again.

We take walks every chance we can. I'm so in love with how beautiful spring is here and feel blessed to live in such a nice area where we feel safe walking.

Food Glorious Food

The beginning of my pregnancy my diet consisted mostly of these staples: Saltines, cereal, oranges.
I'm just now starting to get back into cooking and Mackenzie has decided she needs to be apart of the process every night. Keith was home early enough one night to document his girls making some stuffed french toast.

Cute apron courtesy of Grandma Joan.

Please ignore our hair, mine doesn't know what to do with the humidity and Kenzie's styles never last more than a few hours.

We learned this recipe at YW's and I love the simplicity of it:

Cut a loaf of french bread in half. Soften up some cream cheese and spread it on both sides of your bread. Dice up whatever fruit you love and press lightly into cream cheese on one side. Put your bread together and cut in slices. Whisk together some eggs, a little vanilla, a generous amount of cinnamon and a little milk. Heat a skillet to 330. Grease hot skillet with butter. Dip your slices into the egg mixture and cook on each side until golden brown. Serve with Buttermilk Syrup.

Some people like to blog about beauty/cleaning products they love. As my life kind of revolves around eating right now, I'm going to share some of my obsessions in that category.

First off, has anyone tried this yet? AMAZING. We bought 2 boxes to start and they were gone within a couple of days. All 3 of us are obsessed.
Peanut Butter+ Oatmeal+ Milk+ Brown Sugar+ Dash of Cinnamon+ Raspberries= Heaven

And for some reason, I have a hard time with chocolate when I'm pregnant which is about as weird as it gets because I'm normally a MAJOR chocoholic. So while M&M's still taste off and hurt my belly, these little guys are replacing them. Not a lot of chocolate but lots of creamy PB. Thank you Reese's!

Spring Break

The rest of Spring break turned out to be pretty relaxing.

We slept in and Keith enjoyed making up for lost time with Mackenzie

On Thursday, we went to Cincinnati. Keith was a good sport and took me to the Gap outlet first. This is the cheapest outlet because a lot of the merchandise has broken zippers or little defects that are usually really easy to fix. I only spent an hour and a half there and we came out with clothes for the three of us all for the price of a pair of jeans I took back to the Gap a month ago.

Driving into Cinci
At the outlet, we had the luck of running into a sweet woman in the ward who gave us her passes to the Newport Aquarium. We've heard a lot about this aquarium the past couple of years and were really excited to get a chance to go. It definitely lived up to the hype and was most enjoyable because we could go on a weekday when it wasn't busy.
I don't know what I would do if I encountered these guys in the ocean:
Their faces made me laugh in this photo:
The jellyfish were so beautiful! I don't have any good shots because the room was dark but there were several tanks of different kinds of jellyfish swimming to classical music.
The shark tunnel was the highlight. We spent a lot of time watching them swim and imagining we were underwater with them.

After the tunnel, we were able to pet some of the sharks. They weren't as smooth as I thought they would be.

Right outside the aquarium:

This isn't related to break but for documentation I thought I would include a belly shot. I have 3 total with Mackenzie and I hate that I didn't take more. My belly is completely different this time around. I'm 17 weeks now and I feel so good that if it weren't for my voracious appetite, afternoon fatigue, and little kicks, I would forget I'm pregnant. Hooray for actually enjoying my second trimester this time!

For comparison, here's my belly at 13 weeks with Mackenzie

Just Another Day In Paradise

I wanted to post a little bit of every day life because I definitely don't do it enough and I know these are the memories I'll cherish when our kids are older.

Monday marked the first day Spring Break for Keith. We decided a couple weeks ago to take a little road trip to St. Louis where Keith served his mission and the last minute decided against it because our car is having issues.

We started the day off lazily sleeping in then went to Costco. When we got home, we had to make room in our freezer for food and Keith found a can of Orange Juice so I thought Kenz could help me make some Orange Julius. I asked her not to touch the buttons but she's a defiant two year old and the second my back was turned and the lid was off the blender, she pushed a button and that frothy goodness went everywhere. The picture doesn't quite do it justice and I should have gotten Mackenzie in it because she had it all over her. I'll admit I had to stop my flaring temper so I could take a step back and laugh at the situation then document it.

Keith immediately threw her in the bath and he got a little too caught up playing angry birds and didn't really catch the cues she needed to go to the bathroom. Not once in her life had Mackenzie pooped in the tub before and I was just happy I didn't have to clean it out. (Pic taken a few weeks ago)

Did I mention she skipped her nap so she was a little on the cranky side the rest of the day? I took off before bedtime to watch the Bachelor with some friends and I couldn't help but think while I was away how crazy the day had been and yet, I was so grateful for it. Keith's first day of "break" might not have been much of one but we truly love this phase of our lives and our (mostly) sweet girl.

5, 10, 15 weeks

Ignore my gross mirror and lack of photographer, Keith is never home when I think to take a belly shot. I think I'm about the same size as I was with Kenz at this point, maybe a little smaller because I still feel like I'm so in-between looking fat and pregnant right now. I am carrying lower (boy maybe? or just lack of muscle tone) and I'm feeling better than I did the first time around. I wanted to thank everyone for their sweet comments on Facebook and the Blog. We feel so loved and supported. I'm incredibly grateful for this opportunity to be pregnant. These past couple weeks I've been feeling the baby move so much, it's such a reward for the sickness and puts my anxiety at ease.