So excited!

I'm sure I've already expressed it many, many times in the last month or so, but I just have to say again that I am so excited that we are having a little girl! Especially after finding these on Walmart.com:




Let's just say that March 13th can't come fast enough! :-)

Can't we all just get along?

I realized something a little disturbing today - There are a number of children's songs or rhymes that deal with animals attacking each other. For example, today Will and I talked about the word "alligator" as part of our continuing to learn about the letter A. I found a rhyme/song that goes a little something like this:

5 little monkeys swinging on a tree
Teasing the alligators "Can't catch me"
Along came an alligator, quiet as can be
And snatched a monkey right out of the tree

I know it's a harmless little song, and Will enjoyed learning it. I guess I just wish that there were more songs about animals getting along with each other. Kinda makes me wonder what our society is turning out to be.

A-P-P-L-E

Will and I started our own mini-preschool today, and of course we started with the letter "A". I found these great little books online that help kids learn words and how to write their letters. Will didn't quite grasp the whole writing thing, but he knows all of his capital letters, and now knows a fun song to go with the word "Apple" (In case you can't tell from the video, it's to the tune of B-I-N-G-O)

Tag you're it part 2

So I guess there's a second part to the recent tag I did. I think I've officially become a tag junkie :-)

8 shows I like to watch

1. Dancing with the Stars
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Smallville
4. Privileged
5. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
6. Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader?
7. Ugly Betty
8. Lost

8 things that happened yesterday

1. I got a free ride to my doctor's appointment rather than having to take the bus (Thanks Susan!)
2. I finally got a doctor's note to get my wheelchair fixed
3. Made scalloped potatoes and ham for dinner
4. Tried to fish a pen out of the VCR
5. Spent way too much time checking e-mail and blogs
6. Fell out of my chair in the bathroom, then got paranoid that I had hurt the baby - everything's ok :-)
7. Had FHE with the family
8. Stayed up way too late reading comics online with Bill

8 of my favorite places to eat

1. Chili's
2. Olive Garden
3. Wendy's
4. Sonic
5. McDonald's
6. Papa John's
7. Hot Wok Express
8. Dairy Queen

8 things I'm looking forward to

1. Thankgiving
2. Christmas
3. The birth of our baby
4. Bill finishing his PhD
5. Will getting potty-trained
6. Losing all my baby fat
7. Project Night
8. Date Night

8 things on my wish list

1. A house
2. Some new clothes
3. Going home for Christmas or just sometime in the near future
4. Matching furniture
5. A clean bedroom
6. People coming out to visit us
7. No idea
8. Can't think of anything else

I tag anyone who feels like it

Family Picture Fun

This past weekend we took our annual family picture. We took them at Sears, and are very pleased with how they turned out. Will was wonderfully well-behaved for all the picture-taking, and only started having a melt-down when we were waiting to look at the pictures with the photographer afterwards. Since we will be using one of the pictures of the whole family for our Christmas card this year, I'm only going to post some individual ones and other favorites.


This is my personal favorite of Will's. I just think he looks so adorable (not that I'm biased or anything)


I love Will's face in this one. The photographer kept asking him to say either "cookies" or "candy" to get him to smile, and every time he would say them he would get so excited, and his little nose would scrunch up. So cute!



I am so glad the photographer came up with the idea of doing pictures of Will with each of us. These turned out to be some of my absolute favorites.


And of course, the happy couple :-)

Halloween Happenings

Like I've mentioned before, our camera has been having issues lately, so unfortunately we don't have a whole lot of pictures from things that we've done over the past few weeks to get ready for Halloween, but we did manage to get a few taken.




This year we carved pumpkins with Bobby and Susan and Alice. We had a fabulous time, but the humidity of the Midwest was not kind to our pumpkin. About two days after carving it, it started to turn moldy (sorry, no pictures of the moldy pumpkin).



Sadly, these are the only pictures we have of Will in his costume. And even more sad is that, if it weren't for Susan, our poor child wouldn't even have had a costume. I had great aspirations of the 3 of us being the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker, or the 3 blind mice, but unfortunately I got a little lazy and those things never got past being a thought in my mind. So thankfully Susan found this dog costume at a garage sale and let us borrow it. I'm also sad that we never took any pictures of the fun Halloween party we went to at the church. That was quite the night. Will would not put on his costume for the longest time, no matter how many times we tried to persuade him and convince him that he would get lots of fun candy if he put it on. Luckily, just as we were about to go outside for the Trunk-or-Treat, Will decided to give the costume a try, and then he had a great time.

A Yummy New Tradition

I've decided that holidays are much more fun now that we have kids. I came up with a fun new holiday tradition that Will and I could do together - making yummy treats. For Halloween, Will and I made Jack-o-lantern cupcakes. Will, of course, had much more fun eating the cupcakes, frosting, and chocolate chips, but we did manage to get a number of them done. I can't wait to come up with something for Thanksgiving :-)

More Party Pictures

So I definitely jumped the gun with posting pictures from Will's birthday party, and forgot to wait until I got the pictures that my friend Jessica took when our camera was on the fritz. So here are some more pictures that show the fun time the kids had.


Will had more fun eating the pizza than putting it together

The cute birthday boy

My adorable niece Alice having fun in the bounce house

Will and his good friend Justin

Even though it was cold, they had so much fun in the leaves

I think this is probably my favorite picture of Will from the day

(Sorry about the white around the pictures. No idea how to get rid of that)

Our budding photographer

Will was playing around with the camera a couple of days ago, and I thought I'd share his masterpieces with you.


Me talking to one of Will's many birthday admirers


Self-portrait


Daddy's surprised look

Tag, you're it!

Wow, that was a lame title. Anyway, I found another interesting tag, which seems to be what I do a lot when I'm bored.

7 Things I can do

1. Sing and play the piano
2. Watch certain movies over and over without ever getting tired of them
3. Make a mean batch of chocolate chip or peanut butter cookies
4. Type really fast
5. Talk on the phone for hours
6. Quote almost all of "Beauty and the Beast" (That's Will's favorite movie at the moment)
7. Cross-stitch


7 things I can't do

1. Snowboard
2. Hike
3. Play any other instrument besides piano
4. Get our room clean - not for lack of trying!
5. Sew
6. French braid my hair, or anyone else's
7. Play chess


7 things that attract me to Bill

1. His hands
2. The way he looks at me
3. The fact that he thinks I'm beautiful, even when I first wake up in the morning
4. His kisses - I won't say more, cause I know my sister hates it when I do :-)
5. His ability to make me laugh, even when I've had the worst day
6. His willingness to serve others
7. His testimony of the gospel

7 things I say to often

1. 1...2...3 (That's how long we give Will to do something we ask)
2. Oh man!
3. I'm really tired
4. You are so weird
5. I'm feeling blah
6. Can you babysit Will for me? (I have WAY too many doctor's appointments these days, it's ridiculous)
7. When are you coming home? (My poor husband gets sick of me asking this, especially when I'm in a bad mood)

7 Fave celebrity admirations

1. Kiera Knightley
2. James McAvoy
3. Kate Hudson
4. Kurt Bestor :-)
5. Anne Hathaway
6. Marlee Matlin
7. Keith Urban

7 Fave foods

1. Sweet & Sour pork
2. Chocolate
3. Chicken Fettuccine
4. Pears
5. Apples - but only certain kinds
6. Peanut butter sandwiches
7. Fries

7 people I tag

1. Jesika
2. Aubrey
3. Laura
4. Susan
5. Katie R.
6. April
7. Mary P.