News :)

I feel guilty when I read everyone's blogs and I don't post a thing. But I promise, I've had a good excuse! We have been blessed to find out we are expecting #3 June 27, 2010! I've been feeling sick, so it's hard to get motivated to do much of anything. It seems I will have one good day, and then one bad day. This weekend I will be 11 weeks, so hopefully it will end soon. I've actually puked twice, which didn't happen with the girls. I will probably deliver in Michigan at the same hospital where I had Violet.

I really had completely not been thinking it was possible we would get pregnant on our own. I thought we would have to go through fertility treatments (although I did early this year with no success) and/or adopt our next baby. We had been praying for a baby for a long time, and I had recently told the girls that only Jesus could give us a baby, so pray really hard. My faith can never be like that of a child, so I decided to have the girls pray. Ava asked sadly one night, "Why is Jesus not giving us a baby?" SO sad. But we kept with it, and hopefully the girls will learn from this experience.

I had been feeling a little "off" so while Tyler was on a trip to CA before Halloween I took a pregnancy test. I hadn't taken one in almost a year, because I had essentially put it completely out of my mind not wanting to face disappointment. Lo and behold it was positive. I kept it a secret for a whole day, and then had to tell Tyler. Even though he wasn't here, and it doesn't get much worse than telling your husband the big news over the phone, I had to tell him.

I had some bleeding, so we waited a couple weeks, then took another test to make sure it was still positive. It was. So I waited another week or so and couldn't stand it. We went to a very nice clinic where everything was free and they gave us another test, and an ultrasound to find out how far along I was. Ava was literally jumping up and down and shaking her water bottle when she saw the baby. Here is our sweet little baby. So big at 8 weeks! The uterus is the black circle. The round part is the head, and the parallellogram looking part is the body. If you squint and look really hard at the belly/glare part you can see the umbilical cord.

For Thanksgiving my Step brother and his wife and daughter let us come to Vermont and stay at their house with my Mom and Mike. It was BEAUTIFUL and so relaxing. I got a cold, but it was still amazing.

Here is Tyler with this creepy electronic cat.




Daddy and Violet

Ava, Alisa (ava's cousin), and Tori (step cousin?) Tori's dad (my step brother) is going to Afghanistan in February.

I hardly knew Ava was around her and Alisa played the whole time.


Some beautiful scenery on the way home. Notice the plowed snow on the sides of the road.


Ava had some sort of issue on the way home so she decided to do this with her shirt.

Happy Thanksgiving! We are thankful for miracles. Because each of our children are miracles in the most literal sense.

Happy Halloween

Love,
Snow White and Ariel

Botanical Gardens

Botanical sounds a lot like tropical, but there definitely aren't any tropics near us! There are Botanical Gardens though. We went, having no idea what to expect, but they were actually quite close to our house. We didn't go inside the building, but they had gorgeous trails to walk on. The girls had fun seeing all the trees, leaves and water. It warmed up, so we didn't even have to wear coats.


I gave Ava bangs, can you see? I was hoping to calm her chaotic hair. Not sure what to think yet. Although I do think she looks more like me..


The girls loved these little plaques showing the leaf and tree names. They would eagerly run from one to the next.



Aaannd last but certainly not least, Ava reading a "bookie" to Violet.

Beautiful Fall Day

Fall is my favorite season. Usually we have days like today, slightly cool, sunny, with beautiful colors on all the maple trees. When I was young I always wanted to get married in the fall. Maybe one of my daughters will. Every daughter's dream is to live out her mother's wishes, right?

We went to the park and I had to take some pictures.



This morning we made a German Apple Pancake for breakfast. It was nice to shake it up a little bit from oatmeal.


Yummy!

The other morning I was taking pictures of the girls. The last picture is the real reason I wanted to take a picture. You'll see why. But here's my sweet Ava.

And here is my sweet Violet. I'm still laughing. I need to get out the straightener and straighten her hair so I can see how long it actually is.

Going Private

Well, the day has come.

Our blog is going private.

Please leave a comment with your email so I can include you :) We love our readers!

Your comment will be e-mailed to me and not published publicly.

Our *not so secret* Bread Recipes

From the time we were first married we have enjoyed baking bread. Here are some of our favorite recipes. Good ones are hard to find. The best thing about baking bread is there are few ingredients once you have them "stocked" in your kitchen! If any companies want me to delete these, go for it, but I highly recommend the websites and Cookbook listed! In addition, Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa is also one of the best.

Amish White Bread
from Tried & True Favorites

2c warm water
2/3 c. white sugar
1 1/2 T active dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 c. veg. oil
6 c. bread flour

In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water, then stir in yeast. Allow to proof (or get bubbly) until yeast resembles a creamy foam.

Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix flour one cup at a time. Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth. Place in well oiled bowl and turn dough to coat. Cover with damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk. About 1 hr. Punch down. Knead a few minutes and divide in 1/2. Shape into loaf and put into oiled pans. Allow to rise 30 min until dough rises 1" above pans. Bake at 350 for 30 mins.

Soft Sandwich Buns
allrecipes.com
1 1/4 c milk (room temp)
1 egg beaten
2 T butter
1 1/4 T active dry yeast
3/4 t salt
1/4 c. sugar
1 3/4 c. bread flour

Combine ingredients, knead, let rise until doubled, punch down. Roll into 3/4 inch thick. cut with 2.5 inch biscuit cutter or small glass. Brush tops with melted butter. Cover, let rise in warm place until doubled, about 1 hr.

Bake @ 350 for 10-15 mins or until lightly browned.

Classic Baking Powder Biscuits
Williams and Sonoma Breakfast Cookbook
2 c all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp fine sea salt (or reg salt)
1/2 c cold unsalted butter (or regular salted butter, just add less salt above)
2/3 c whole milk

Preheat oven to 450. Lightly grease baking sheet with butter. In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. With your fingertips, rub the cold butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal, handling it as little as possible. Stir in the milk and blend with a spoon just until all the liquid has been absorbed. With lightly floured hands work the dough briefly until it barely holds together in a flaky ball

Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface. Roll or pat the dough out into a round about 1/2 inch thick. With a 2 inch biscuit cutter (or small glass cup) cut out as many rounds as possible. Gather up the scraps, work in to cohesive ball, re roll and cut out more rounds. Do not re roll the dough more than once or you will end up with tough biscuits. Transfer the biscuits onto the prepared baking sheet and bake in the center of the oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Serve immediately, with whipped butter and maple syrup, if desired.

Here Kitty Kitty

Just in time for Halloween there was a cute little black cat on our back step! Milo was going crazy, and the kids loved getting close to the cat without it being able to get them. It stayed for about an hour!! I wanted to feed it, but then again, I am allergic to cats.

Side note:
The cat actually RAN IN OUR HOUSE on Sunday. We were already late. Milo was going crazy. The cat was hissing and batting at him. Finally shooed it out the back door. Poor thing was probably cold.



It has been really really cold and Grandma sent some cute boots in the mail. Thanks Grandma!


The other week we went apple and raspberry picking. Here I am with the girls. It was FREEZING! But eventually it warmed up. We have almost eaten an entire 1/2 bushel of apples in 2 weeks.


Violet especially enjoyed eating the raspberries. I think she ate half a big box (maybe a quart?), they were all gone within 2 days. I had to keep picking and picking just to keep up with their eating. Eventually after my back started hurting and aching we filled up a big box. Another highlight for the girls were the port a potties. We made two trips, they were so amazing! We love sarcasm in this family.

Enjoying Photos and some of that guy

The girls have now started asking me to take their pictures. So here's what our beautiful Ava chose to look like:


And here is how Violet chose to smile like a princess:


I thought this one was really cute. You can totally tell Ava has started posing.



Oh, and speaking of the other person in the house, what's his name? Ummm.. Tyler? Yeah, I think that's it.. Here's Tyler working hard last night.

Here's Tyler with his sweet girls. He really is a great dad.

First dance class

Ava had her first ballet class today! It went well. They practiced jumping, skipping, galloping and twirling. Ava went right in all by herself and paid very good attention to her teacher, Dianna. Ava was really tired by the end, so we are going to practice some moves so she's not so tired next week. We also talked about "taking a nap" before so she isn't tired.

"Tissue in my nose"

Yeah, that's right. Last night while Tyler was studying late Violet got a piece of tissue rammed waaayyy up her nose. I thought for sure we were headed to the emergency room. Thankfully I was able to fish it out with tweezers while pulling her cheek back and looking up her nostril. I could barely see it. Let's hope this is a once in a lifetime experience.

The girls have runny noses. From what I think was the swine flu to this. Fun times.

Thankful

I've been feeling very grateful lately for the abundance of blessings that I have. Even though there are many things that I want, or that worry me, I am so blessed. Here are some of the ways I am thankful:

For a beautiful library and story times.



For dear friends of the best variety that let us share in the joy of another baby. It is these experiences that really humble us and help us realize what life is all about.


For Aunts and uncles that love our children.


For piles of dirt and the joy they bring to kids.


For FREE science centers.


For a little fear every once and a while.


For the majesty of birds, the letter B, and for kind hearts that give a home to injured animals.

Amazing Photos

http://anothertestamentofchrist.com/

Absolutely gorgeous photos of Christ.

Cute craft and more updates

Here is the little Ikea table I painted a couple weeks ago. Super easy. It can also be done on a canvas. How I did it is below:



1. Get craft paint from Joanne's or Michael's. Make sure you get a clear coat too.
2. Measure surface and mark light guidelines for lines (they may show, so the lighter, and less lines the better)
3. Paint. It may take several coats. I had to cover up marker and paint, and in the end it didn't cover all the way, but good enough. My lines aren't perfect either.
4. Print word(s) you want off the computer. Use any font you want. Make sure it is the exact size you want too.
5. On the back side of the word(s) you printed, color heavily in pencil. Do several "layers." This is a cheap, easy substitute for graphite paper. Only do behind where your word is printed.
6. Lay on surface exactly where you want letters to occur graphite side down. Tape so paper doesn't move. (although I didn't do this. I just eyeballed it)
7. Trace letters on printed side with pen or pencil
8. Lift off paper.
9. Color tracing with black sharpie. This is MUCH easier, and more accurate than painting.
10. Use clearcoat of paint to cover entire surface.

Enjoy!


This is Ava's shopping cart. She certainly loves her "stuff." She always has bags, pillows, blankets, purses, papers, little toys, big toys, etc all crammed in it. And she knows exactly what's in it. Maybe it's a stage, but it is really funny. Or maybe she's just rebelling against mom's decluttering.


Preschool has started up again and we have started with a vengeance. Here are some apple seed shakers we made. We put some seed inside the apple aka beans, and danced around. We also made a book of a few "A" words. This week we're on to the letter B!

Here are some more fun pictures from the game a couple weeks ago. It was HOT and we got free towels to wave in the air.


The main reason I like the picture below is because I don't look pregnant. I'm not, but big yellow t-shirts tend to accentuate the midsection. Our seats are pretty good!! All the student section tickets have "Maize out" written on them so you're supposed to wear yellow.


Us :)

Awesome Saturday Game

In case you didn't hear, U of M won against Notre Dame on Saturday in the last 20 seconds of the game. We traded away our ticket, but are going to Ohio State, so I'm not sad we weren't there but we watched the whole thing on TV. It was AWESOME! You could hear the crowd roaring at our house and the loudspeaker every time a big play happened. We were yelling and screaming at our house too.. it was so fun. Yeah, more than 100,000 people are a loud bunch.. We had a tailgate with a few other LDS - Business School families who live in our complex. Our neighbors are the ones right in front of us with their son, Carter. Ava and Violet were too busy playing to get them in the picture.

The first view of A2

Rather than writing out the entire name of Ann Arbor, I've reduced myself to using the term A2. Here was the view out of our window this morning at 7:30! Tailgating! We're super excited to go to the game this afternoon. It's going to be a hot one. I hear the student section is conveniently located right where the sun shines.



I ran across these pictures on the camera from last month. Tyler and the girls camped in the back yard while I was at girls camp. They are so cute!