Owls & Chickens

Man! We've been enjoying the beautiful weather lately. 70-80 degrees is my favorite temperature, and it's been the perfect May in that aspect. I always try to hold out on the AC until June, and I don't think this year will be a problem at all.

Dustin has gotten back into the potty training groove over the past week. Since we went out of town camping he has had a hard time, so we have been bribing him hardcore. First if he had 5 days of no accidents he got an ice cream party. He got to pick the flavor and toppings from the grocery store. This week if he went all week without accidents we had a pizza party with whatever toppings he wanted. 

Friday we had our pizza party! I made everyone individual pizza crusts and we decorated our own with whatever we wanted. Dustin had an entire can of olives (he shared a little with Dave, but he really ate most of them). Logan had just pepperoni. I had hawaiian and Dave had half cowboy, half bbq chicken. It was fun! We'll probably do it again just because. So we've stopped the bribing and hopefully he will stay on track with the potty training (at least until we have a baby).

Saturday we worked in the yard all morning! Our garden is planted, the drip lines are laid down, the hammock is on the gazebo and the weeds have been pulled from the flower beds. So we're off to a good start. I've been spraying dandelions this year, and we have almost all of them eradicated (much to the boy's sorrow). Now all we have to do is clean off the gazebo and we'll be ready for summer! 

That night we also had a family dinner with Dave's side of the family. The boys had fun playing with cousins and the weather was perfect to just hang out outside.

Monday we had a fun day! My friend RiKelle moved a few months ago, so the boys and I took the day off to go visit her. She now lives in the country so the first hour and a half or so we spent outside in their yard chasing around their chickens! The boys had a blast. They had three different color chickens (brown, black and white) and each boy, along with RiKelle's boy Edison claimed a color to chase.

After lunch we headed over to the local ice cream store for cones, followed by the park where the boys chased ducks and canadian geese around until it was time to head home. We got a lot of talking in while the boys were playing and chasing, and it was fun! The whole ride home both boys were so worn out they just slept. They woke up as soon as we pulled into the driveway! Perfect for me.

That night for FHE we went to the library for an owl exhibit. It was pretty cool, they had 3 experts come in and give lecture (but kid level) on owls. They even brought in a horned owl and a screech owl for us to see. Logan was enthralled! He kept waving at the owls and telling us things that pertained to the lecture and would raise his hand to share his ideas with the group. After we picked out a few books and movies and headed home. We don't often make it to the library's events, but when we do we love them!

Mother's Day and Baby Names

So the highlight of the boy's past two weeks was the Primary Activity Night. They did a family movie (the Good Dinosaur) and movie snacks. The boys each ate 2 bags of popcorn and TONS of candy! After, while the adults were cleaning up, the kids played tag... in which Dustin decided to streak across the gym twice. What can I say, we've been having nudity problems since he got potty trained and learned to take off his pants. If I wasn't so embarrassed, it would be pretty funny.

After getting back from being out of town Dustin started having accidents so we upped the bribes. He earned an ice cream party last week for 5 days in a row of no accidents (he got to go to the store to pick a half gallon and sprinkles). This week if he has no accidents, on Friday we'll have a pizza party (probably make your own and we'll pick toppings at the store). We'll see after that if we continue to bribe or if he's back to normal. I long for the day when I don't have to worry about accidents. Or being woke up in the middle of the night (Dustin has sleeps all night for a while now, but I'm really dreading that in the next 3 months...).

Week two of work from home sewing has gone well. The lady who cut the material did it wrong, so it took longer than I would have liked to complete, but next week should go better. It's been a pretty easy way to earn extra money, even if it consumes my free time.

Mother's Day weekend went well. Friday night we asked Dave's parent's if we could stop by and visit and bring Dave's Mom's gift over and they offered to babysit! So Dave and I went out to dinner at Cafe Rio and saw the latest Captain America movie. It wasn't my favorite of the super hero movies, but Dave loved it. And it was really nice to have a break after how busy we have been lately.

Saturday we worked in the yard all morning and Dave worked on a project for me in the afternoon (he made me a necklace for Mother's Day) while the boys and I got work done around the house. I tried out a new gluten free muffin recipe for Mother's Day that turned out FABULOUS! It was supposed to be blueberry muffins, but I did cherry white chocolate chip).

Sunday the boys brought me breakfast in bed, and I got to open my presents. After church we had a casual dinner, naps, and I got to read while the boys played on the tramp with Dave. It was a good, casual day. I didn't clean up, so there was a big mess to clean up Monday morning. 

I slept terrible Sunday night, so Monday I gave up on sleep at 6am. I got the kitchen and bathroom cleaned up and did two loads of laundry (I forgot to start them Friday...). Visited the Dr at 11 (everything looks good). They also did my second Thyroid test and my Glucose test. I'll get the results in the next two weeks, but am expecting everything to be fine.

In other baby related news, we've picked a first name! We're going with Brooklyn Plastow. We're still working on a middle name, but it's nice to have the first name figured out. Since we told the boys Dustin is convinced all babies are named "Bookin". Either that or he insists our baby is Batman. He's holding strong with that one. This second trimester has gone by so fast, I can't believe I'm already 27 out of 40 weeks done! It's pretty nice that by baby 3 there's not a whole lot I need to get done. Right before I will go on another mad cleaning and freezer cooking spree, but for now we're good!

Running & Camping

This month has been crammed full of stuff! I swear I don't know when we will get around to the yard, since we usually plant the garden the first weekend of May and that's coming soon.

Dave's in the green shirt & red shorts

Dave ran in a half marathon last weekend! He injured his leg the week of, so all things considering he did a great job. He finished just under two hours. The boys had a fun time cheering him on, and were fascinated to find out the race had free face painting and balloon animals after. There was also guest appearances by Spiderman, Captain America, a Jedi, Elsa & Anna. They had this because there was a kids race at 11. Logan decided he wouldn't mind racing next year. We'll see if he feels the same then, and we can sign him up. It's only like $5 to run, and he gets a shirt too, so not too pricy.

I picked up some sew from home work this week. I initially thought it was going to be a one time thing, but it sounds like the lady is looking for help until July or August, so I've told her I'll do a few hours a day. It will be nice to have some extra money coming in, even if I don't have a plan for it right now (I'm thinking a family trip to the beach, or remodel the basement bathroom... or just pay off baby #3's medical bills... we'll see). I'm making bags for tent polls and end up making around $15 and $20 an hour, depending on how fast I sew because I'm paid by the piece.

This weekend we took a long weekend and headed down to St George area to camp, hike, and visit with my Mom's side of the family. 9 out of the 10 siblings were there, some of their spouses, and my Grandparents were all there. Many of my cousins weren't able to make it, but with a smaller group, we got to visit more with everyone that was there which was so nice.

The boys had so much fun hiking and were very proud of themselves for hiking to the top of several mountains, into caves, lava tubes, and to Moqui Marble Heaven (as they and their cousin's named the top of one particular hike).

Mike and Alison were there Friday and most of Saturday. The boys had so much fun playing and hiking with their cousins! We were sad to see them go home early.

They collected TONS of rocks! As I keep unpacking more bags, I find more and more. Every tupperware container that was empty was filled when I opened them. Which is quite impressive since they had to unzip the bag they were in, fill them, put the lids on the tupperware, and zip the bag back up.

Friday  night we had some kind of freak wind storm that blew ours and about 4 other tents over. Our center metal tent poll snapped in half so we were up at 2 am trying to fix it so we could get some sleep. We didn't get a lot of sleep that night. Fortunately we just bought our tent at REI and they have a 1 year return policy. So after one camping trip, it will be headed back to the store. Sigh! I really liked that tent.

Saturday night as we were sitting around the fire, Logan requested going to bed "I'm exhausted! Can we go to sleep now?" What parent is going to say no to that? As we were getting ready for bed, Logan kept insisting we pray for no wind and we all got a killer night of sleep. In the morning Logan woke up, popped his head out of his sleeping bag (we were all sleeping with our heads in our bags to protect ourselves from the wind blowing sand in our faces), and exclaimed "God answered my prayers! There was no wind and I slept all night!" What a cute little guy :)

The ride home was rough, and the cleanup/unpacking/4 loads of laundry were intense, but all and all a great weekend. Now to plan a summer vacation.

Easter & Conference

Dustin has been potty training! Most days he goes without accidents, but when he wants attention or when he is lazy he has accidents. So work in progress, but pretty good for the first week. He does know what he's doing, it's just a matter of convincing him this is the thing to do.

The weather has been so nice we have enjoyed playing outside. We even went on a trip to Murray Park. The boys love to run around and enjoying nature! So it was fun times.

Last weekend we went to Dave's parent's house for an Easter egg hunt with the cousins. The boys had fun and found tons of eggs! Logan told me later Saturday he didn't know Papa hid eggs, he thought it was just the Easter Bunny.

Easter was a fabulous day too. We woke up and found baskets (Dustin ate so much candy that I had to put up the baskets), we went to church, enjoyed lunch/dinner, and went on a long walk. We stopped by a friend from the ward's house and the boys played with their boys for a while. The family have 3 boys (5, 3, and 18 months) and she's pregnant with a little girl too, so we have a lot in common, and they're just fun.

This week we've been getting back into the swing of things. Cleaning up from all the lack of cleaning potty training week, making more freezer meals, etc. I tried a few new freezer recipes and made a total of 18 dinners and freezer garlic bread. I want to have some tasty recipes on hand so we can fill up the freezer for when the baby is born.

Our friends the Montgomery's came to visit us from Logan on Thursday! The boys played and played with their two kids. They have a little girl that's almost a year old and Dustin couldn't believe she was crawling. Infact he was CONVINCED she wasn't big enough to crawl, so he would crawl right behind her (almost on top of her) and make sure she didn't fall over. It was cute, and eventually he accepted that she wasn't going to hurt herself.

Friday we got a 3 yard load of wood chips for our yard. That night we spread half of it and we plan to to finish up Saturday between Conference sessions. I'm hoping this will mean we don't have to weed this year. The boys think the pile of wood chips is the best toy ever! They help us by climbing up it to see how tall it is, and they have their sand shovels to help us fill up the wheel barrel.

We learned a new anatomy term recently that Logan wanted me to share, it's philtrum. It's the dent below your nose and above your lip. He's pretty entertained that there's a term for it.

Superheroes & Doctors

Big news! We found out today we're having a baby GIRL! Dave and I are pretty excited. The boys are a little disappointed. All afternoon Logan kept exclaiming "But I wanted another brother!" and "I didn't want a a girl!" And Dustin keeps talking about his baby brother and discussing how he saw it was a boy at the Dr. We thought we had prepped them for this pretty well (we kept telling them God picks if it's a Boy or Girl), but I guess not!

When we walked into the office Dustin told the receptionist "we're gonna see a video of our baby brother." They thought it was pretty hilarious that he was so set on a boy. They refused to answer the receptionist when we headed out and they asked what the baby was. Although Dustin was impressed that the baby was sucking her thumb "like me!" So she's not a total loss.

Last week we went to FHE at a new family in our ward's house. They have 3 boys (5 almost 6, 3 almost 4 and 18 months). The boys had a great time with them, and we are excited to get to know them better this summer. They're also expecting a baby in August, so our babies can be friends too.

It's been so warm around here! We got out our trampoline and have been spending a little time each day enjoying that. The boys also have loved playing in the sandbox, kids house, and digging in their garden (ie, the flower bed). I love how well they entertain themselves outside, and how content they are exploring the yard. I finally am at the point where I trust Dustin to stay in the back yard or under the car port without running into our front yard. I usually just wash lunch dishes while they're in the yard, so I can watch out the window to make sure they aren't escaping into the front yard.

The boys got to go to Logan's Friend Brigg's birthday party too! They had so much fun. They pretty much played dressup as the different super heroes the whole time. I think they all got to be everyone.

And of course they enjoyed their cake with blue frosting. They were in sugar heaven.

Logan and Dustin are a crack up lately. I asked them a few weeks ago what they wanted to do for a job when they grew up. Logan responded "a hotdog salesman" Dustin decided on "Superman". I'm not sure if Logan means he wants to own a hotdog stand, or if he means being a corporate sales man for Ballpark. I guess he has time to figure it out. They also have picked out their favorite baby names. Dustin is still rooting for Baby Jesus, but would also be ok with Batman, Venom, or Baby Wreck it Ralph. Logan is pretty set on Marsh (no longer Marshmallow, just Marsh).

I'm finally feeling better! Not 100 percent yet, but I'm definitely getting my energy back. Last doctors appointment my Dr told me (after reviewing my bloodwork) she was pretty sure my low thyroid levels would fix themselves in the next few weeks. I was also recovering from a cold, so I've still got congestion but I'm feeling a ton better! I've even started exercising again this week (I don't exercise when I'm sick).

With all this extra energy I got out my maternity shirts (finally!) and went through all my regular clothes. I donated things I don't wear to the thrift store and stored everything else in crates (two for summer, two for winter, one for post-baby/nursing). So now I have a section of my closet for smaller maternity shirts and one for larger shirts (for later). I'm still in my regular pants for a little longer, but had enough room to put maternity pants in my drawers too (what can I say, my maternity wardrobe isn't as extensive as my regular one).

And now that we know what we're having I need to dig through all the baby stuff to see what we have that works for a girl, what we've been given (we've collected a few hand me downs over the years), and what we need to buy. I really need to do this before I go crazy buying stuff. Which is pretty tempting right now.