March

We started off the month with Ellie being chosen as Student of the Month for her class. Her class nominated her and they had the sweetest things to say. She was presented with a certificate and a new Wildcats shirt.

We signed Ellie up for Saturday swim lessons. She was so ready to learn, finally was brave enough to dunk her head in the water and finally caught on the the swimming concept this time. 

Bathroom progress, moved the toilet drain and filled back in with concrete. Haven't gotten much further than this lately. Next is tile, we're surviving with one bathroom for now.

Taking every opportunity to get out of the house, walks to school, blowing bubbles. We're always finding the pockets of sun in our backyard this time of year. We usually perch ourselves on the steps and bask in the sun. 

Lucy learned to blow bubbles and a whole new world was opened up to her.

A quick ring around the rosy after school. With Kindergarten being half day these kids come home with lots of energy and are eager to run around. They usually play tag or hide and seek for a few minutes while the moms chat. It might be one of my favorite times of the day. 

notice the little's are even included :)

Our Ellie turned 6 this month! 

Miss Ellie, she is such an awesome kid. She is energetic, artistic, kind, and a perfect mix of girly and tomboy. School has been the biggest change this year, and she has excelled. She is doing so well reading and seems to be interested in math. She has made some great friends, both boys and girls. I love that she has play dates were she has tea parties and plays dress up, but gets invited to hang out with a boy were they watch power rangers and play with dinosaurs. She would rather help me or just hang out with me than play by herself, we usually have to enforce quiet alone time. She and Lucy get along most of the time, but Ellie tries to boss her around and we are all learning to find a balance. I can see their friendship forming and that they will enjoy each other more as time goes on, as Lucy is able to be more vocal and they can really play together. Ellie is so loved by those around her and we are so proud of her.

She had a friend party this year with all girls. We had a fiesta since Cocoa is a family favorite in our house. We had a fun party with a few snacks, painting pots and planting succulents, pin the tail on the donkey and cake. 

We got Ellie a much needed new bike and she can sure go fast on it. She got a scooter from Grandma and Papa so now she has some options. She got enough birthday money from a few cards  that she was able to go pick a toy at Target. She picked toy horse with feed bucket and stable. She was very happy. We had a great week celebrating our girl. 

Mom's and muffins breakfast at Ellie's school.

A note I found in Ellie's notebook:

Hi im Ellie

i love to run

around and around

I love dinosaurs

because they are so 

awesome

Gearing up for Easter. Bunny ears and bunny froo froo and dying eggs.

February

We took advantage of a mild winter day and headed out to explore. We've wanted to visit the Spiral Jetty for a while so we headed north. The Golden Spike Historic site is on the way so we visited the museum and walked the tracks. We scored two Historic sites in one day. 

The Spiral Jetty is so remote. You have to take a graded dirt rode to get there, but It is totally worth it. We couldn't see the West mountains so it really felt like we were at the ocean. 

We collected some rocks for our garden and headed home, stopping by the drive in Brigham City on the way home. A Saturday well spent. 

Loving that we were able to walk to school in February, made exercising during this pregnancy easier. I'm happy with walking 2 miles most days.

A few painting projects for Jared's clients.

Ellie and her cute friends Lucy and Zoren celebrating 100 days of school.

This is how Lucy reacts when we go through the car wash. She's got her big sister to hold her hand and keep her safe.

Ellie and I made bookmarks to hand out for her Valentine's at school. I figured she'd get so much candy we would hand out something different. 

Valentine's Day dinner with homemade pizza by candlelight

20 Week ultrasound for baby #3. The baby was measuring a little small, small enough that I have to have follow up ultrasounds to monitor the baby's growth, making sure my placenta is functioning to nourish the baby. It was rather stressful, especially when pregnant, you want the doctors visits to go smoothly and to hear that everything looks great. 

Since then the issue has resolved itself, baby seems to have caught back up to a normal measurement but I still have to have a few more ultrasounds to make sure everything is fine. Keep growing Baby!

Ellie giving Lucy a Saturday morning makeover

The night we went to Antelope Island to look at the stars will be remembered forever. 

We grabbed sub sandwiches and headed out to Antelope Island to watch the sunset and look at the stars. We set up camp in the back of the car with blankets, ate dinner, and watched the sunset. We were distracted and didn't realize having the dome lights one would completely kill the battery in the car. Well we stayed for a while after dark, all the cars in the parking lot left and then when we went to leave the car was dead. Dead, dead! We were screwed. Jared walked to a nearby parking lot to see if any cars were there, none. Neither of us had cell service on the West side of the Island, we were stranded. The girls were occupied watching Coco on the Ipad that had plenty of battery, and luckily it was a warm night and we had blankets. Jared set out to see if he could find anyone driving by or get service leaving us girls in the locked car in the dark parking lot. He walked up over a hill signaling SOS with the flash light on his phone and two young guys came to our rescue. It was about an hour maybe and hour and a half stranded, I was mentally preparing myself to have to spend the night. I figured there would be someone there in the morning, at least a ranger. I didn't break down and cry until after the car was running and we were driving out of the park. We learned our lesson. Turn the dome light off. 

Finally some snow, of course it happened when Jared was out of town so I was forced to shovel it. I usually don't mind shoveling, but it's not very fun when your pregnant.

Jared went to Scottsdale for the weekend with a group of guys from his Mission. They had a blast, rented a house, watched the Olympics, golfed, swam and managed to not get into any trouble. It's an awesome group of guys and they have maintained a great relationship after 16 years.

Jared took the girls out on a impromptu Daddy/ Daughter date. I had dinner with a friend and Jared decided taking the girls out sounded like a better idea than entertaining them at home after a long day at work. They bowled and played at the arcade and had ice cream. They had so much fun and it's always good for dads to get a taste of being out in public alone with the kids.