4th Of July

This year for the 4th of July we decided to check out the Hilliard parade. It wasn't the most exciting parade i have ever seen (understatement), but the kids had a lot of fun gathering candy they were throwing out :)

Little soccer players!

This year we decided to put Kaitlyn in soccer again. Although Ashley is only 2, we were able to pull a few strings and let her play with Kaitlyn on the 3 and 4 yr old team! She loved being able to play and even surprised us a little with some fancy footwork. ha ha. It is quite entertaining and a little frustrating to watch them play but i think they had a fun time running around the field with there friends.

They were able to play with their friends from the ward again. What a cute little team!
I guess my girls don't know how to do a thumbs up. ha ha

Spring

Unfortunately i haven't been very good at taking many pictures, as usual. But i did get a few random cute ones of the girls this last month.

One of their favorite things to do is play in the hot tub. Their own little pool.

On Easter we invited some friends over for a BBQ and Easter egg hunt. With all of the rain we had been having, we were lucky that the weather ended up being so beautuful! The kids had a blast looking for eggs and eating all of their candy!

Kaitlyn and Ashley were invited to a Tinckerbell themed birthday where they got to take home fun little costumes.

On May 14th my sister Tara and her husband Matt were sealed together in the Salt Lake Temple! I love you guys and i'm so glad i was able to be there! It was also neat to have my whole family together in the temple.

I didn't want to miss their important day, so I left my husband and kids at home and took a 5 day vacation to Utah!

Thank you to my wonderful husband and great friends for being so willing to take care of my girls for me. What a nice break for me :) The baby will be here in 2 months so it will probably be the last one i get for a long time.

I was so excited to meet my new little niece and nephew for the first time. Lisa had her little girl Breanna on April 21st. She is such a little cutie! All of Lisa's babies are born with loads of hair while mine are all little baldies.

Rachel had Adam on May 2nd! I couldn't get enough of this little guy. He made me excited to have my little boy. It's hard being a first time momma, but your doing a great job Rach :)

Congrats Rach and Lis! I loved being able to shower your babies with loves :) I am so glad i was able to spend so much time with my family. I miss you!

We are having a baby.....

After 23 weeks of being pregnant i am finally blogging about our baby :) This pregnancy has definitely been better than the other 2 so far. I have felt nauseous, sick, super tired and have thrown up almost every day for months, but i feel so lucky that i haven't been quite as sick with this one. Thank goodness i am to the point now where all of that has mostly passed. Now for the big uncomfortably belly and back pain. (Can you tell i don't like to be pregnant much :) As much as i complain and as uncomfortable as i am, i feel so blessed to be able to have another child and for the opportunity to be a mother.

From the very beginning of my pregnancy i knew we were having a boy. Besides the difference in sickness and how i felt, i just knew. A few weeks ago the doctor confirmed it, WE ARE HAVING A BOY! Bryan is soooooo ecstatic! I'm happy of course, but also a little scared. All i know are girls and all i have is pink. ha ha. The plus is i get to go do a lot of shopping. The downside is that i don't know how to shop for boys clothes. Lol.

Here i am at 5 months with my little basketball belly.

This last couple of months Bryan and i have actually been able to go out on a few dates.

One of them was the Mandiball. It's a dinner/dance event that the dental school puts on every year. Bryan's Mom was wonderful enough to fly out for 1 day to spend some time with us and watch the girls while we went.

A couple weeks ago Bryan and i were able to go out to dinner with our friends, the Palmers, then to the Ohio theatre to see "Les Mis". It was an amazing show in an amazing building.

The weather has been a little crazy lately. One day it's warm and sunny and the next day it's cold and dark. Ether way, we are starting to get Spring fever and my girls are so excited they are able to go outside and play again. One of there favorite things to do is go on walks with Daddy and their babies. :)

Happy Birthday to me!

I am now officially in my 30s. I'm not sure how i feel about it yet, but like it or not i can't stop getting older :) So i have decided to embrace it. I'm not sure if i can embrace that gray hair i found the other day though. ha ha. I have also been trying to embrace this tiny little life growing inside me that makes me so very sick. He or she decided not to give me a break on my Birthday. Luckily it was only a morning thing. The weather was not looking to be in my favor either until Bryans patients called and cancelled their appointments because of it. It gave him a great excuse to skip school and spend the day with me. My wonderful husband took me to lunch and wrote me sweet little notes that he posted around the house. He really goes out of his way to make me happy and to make my Birthdays special. He also gets me the best gifts! Recently my laptop died on me and i was going crazy without it, so Bry surprised me with a 27 inch Mac desktop computer. I love it! My second present was Bryan finally shaving his beard! I think my hubby is a hotty with a beard or clean shaved, but boy do i prefer the cleaned shaved :)


We had to take a picture of Bryan before he shaved his beard. Hopefully he got this facial hair thing out of his system. :)

For my Birthday some friends and i went to Olive Garden for dinner! I am lucky to have such great friends! They really made my Birthday a lot of fun!

This is what most of our yard has looked like lately. Everything is covered in ice. I had never experienced ice storms or frozen rain until i moved to Ohio. Our drive way and street was like an ice skating rink.

Before our fun little ice storm hit, we had a couple days where it got warm enough for Bryan and the kids to go outside and build a snowman.

I love this picture! She could barely move in all her snow clothes. lol

Christmas 2010

We decided to spend our Christmas in Utah again this year! Bryans parents bought him a ticket to ensure that he would be able to leave and come back when he needed to for school. That meant that i was left flying stand bye with the girls on my own again. I've done it so many times now, i feel like I'm beginning to be a pro. Luckily we made our flights ok, the girls were "pretty good" and Bryan was able to fly out 2 days after us.
When so many of our family on both sides live within an hour of each other, it makes for a lot of driving around, visiting relatives and a little bit of tug-a-war. Thankfully this year Bryan and i were able to compromise and come to an agreement of where were were staying and how we were going to spend our Christmas. We spent Christmas morning with Bryans parents and his Brothers family. Unfortunately i am horrible at taking pictures and didn't do very well with my picture taking that morning. Bryan got me something that might help me out with my bad picture taking.....a Cannon Rebel Camera! I am so intimidated just looking at it that it took me a couple weeks to finally sit down and figure out how to use it. Now that i think I've figured out the basics, I'm pretty excited to start using it!
Bryans parents got all of the grand kids these little sleds that look like little snowmobiles. Bryan, his Dad and brother took the kids out sledding to try them out. They had a blast!



Christmas evening was spent at my sister Lisa's house with my family. We had a Delicious dinner and played a fun little gift exchange game. Bry and i walked away with a gift card and the most comfy, fuzzy snuggy I've ever seen :)
Love my sisters! I wish i would've gotten a picture of all the girls :( Sorry Mom, Aunt Carma, and the little ones)

I love you too boys!

Every time we are in Utah we get to hang out with our wonderful friends, the Offrets. Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures with them but we got one of Ashley and their 2 adorable kids Everett and Scarlet.

We were able to go bowling 3 times while in Utah! Kaitlyn is a pro now!



While we were at the nail salon waiting for Grandma Cindy to get her nails, the nice lady said she would paint the girls nails while we waited. They even got to pick the color they wanted. Soo cute!

It was actually really hard to come back to Ohio. I don't miss living out out of a suitcase and having to rely on others for things like transportation, but i miss having lunch dates several times a week, playing with my family and friends and having babysitters. Our last week there i got the WORST cold of my life. It really put a damper on...well, everything. The stupid cold followed me home and is still in full force. Hence my laziness in taking my sweet time to blog about our trip. But here it is.

We hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Halloween!

This year for Halloween Kaitlyn was Tinker Bell and Ashley was an OSU cheerleader.
They had more than enough fun activities where they got to dress up. They also received more than enough candy. Since i don't really like my kids to have sugar, i guess i will just have to help them eat it :)
We went trick or treating again this year with some of our good friends. The kids had a great time despite the cold weather.Our friends, the Bowcutts, had their annual "Boo Fest" Halloween party. We don't enjoy dressing up as much as some people but hey it's only once a year. It's fun to see every ones costumes and fun ideas.