4 year Anniversary!

Yesterday, on Thursday, April 29, 2010, Kenny and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary!! It's so fun to think about that beautiful day 4 years ago when we were sealed for time and eternity! I am so glad I get to be with him forever. I can't imagine loving someone so much, and working through marriage every day just to think it will come to an end. Kenny is perfect for me, and I love him so much.

I woke up to a beautiful necklace, hanging on my sewing machine that he had got for me. He never does things like that so I was, of course, tearing up. It was so sweet and thoughtful of him. He got off work early, at 3:00 and we went to a movie, and then dinner. My friend Heather watched our kids (thanks again!!) and we loved going out on a date. We need to do it more often. We didn't do anything major since we just went on a cruise in Feb.

We've had a pretty packed four years, with 2 kids and one on the way, and several moves. It's always an adventure, and we love it every step of the way. (Try to ignore how large my arms have gotten in the past 4 years haha.) I love you Kenny!!

Week Re-cap, backwards

Today has been a big day, but not really for me. My newest nephew was born! Samuel Dean Baker, 6 lbs. 10 oz. my poor sister Kim was wanting so badly to have an all-natural birth and after being in labor all night and pushing for over 4 hours, he just wouldn't come and they ended up doing a c-section. But they're both doing okay now and we're so grateful for that.

Today was also the day of the would-be half-marathon that Kenny and I were training for, up until I got pregnant. Sort of sad, but that's okay. We plan on doing our first one together after this baby's born. I'm happy for all of my friends in the ward that went to Nashville for it; some ran the full marathon, and others the half. I am sure they all did well even with the threat of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes there this weekend, that would have called the whole thing off! I hope it all went okay.

It is pouring rain and I'm so happy about that. It's been rainy off and on the last few days, and will be this next week too. This morning we ran a bunch of errands, went to the library, got the tires rotated and oil changed. We came home and all had a big family nap!! It was lovely. Kenny was knocked out because he's on Benadryl for his POISON IVY that he got. It's been a rough week for Kenny, and the itching rash all over his neck, arms, hands, and ears is not helping anything! Poor guy. Hopefully it will start to heal as this is day 7 of it, which is supposedly the worst? We've had fun just playing, cleaning, and spending time together.

Friday we stayed inside almost the whole day because of the rain. But it was nice. I made chicken noodle soup and homemade rolls. Not the kind where you pour a can of soup in a pan and heat it up. I mean like the messy kind. Take a whole chicken, cut it up, make the real broth, takes hours to make, etc. It was yummy, and will be again tomorrow when we can hopefully finish it off. I also made the best rolls I have ever made in my life, and my family agrees. I was going to tell a long, funny story about all I went through to get one egg to make the dang things. But I don't feel like it anymore haha. I will sum it up by saying that I wish we lived in a world (or maybe just a neighborhood) where there's parents that actually stay home during the day with their children. Not just for their family's sake, but in case I need to borrow an egg haha. But here's the link to the recipe I used. They are huge and delicious, and my husband and kids can't stop eating them with every meal. I had piano lessons that went well. It's been 4 months now since I've been taking lessons and I feel like I've improved a ton, and that makes me so happy.

Thursday a.m. Tyler had The Little Gym, and had so much fun just like always. Straight from there we went to this new, and very yummy, restaurant called the Peel. It's a pizza place. A bunch of gals from the ward got together for lunch to celebrate my friend, Terra Reed's birthday!! It was fun, but it reminded me of why I don't go out to lunch very often haha. That's nap time and Brynlee was a monster. Oh well. I want to go back with Kenny so he can try it.

Wednesday. we had a presidency meeting at my house. Tuesday I did some crafting, and spruced up my craft corner. Which is a corner, not a room. It's actually the corner of our dining room, which is like the ultimate form of tackiness. But it works for us for now. Monday was FHE, and earlier that day I made some yummy strawberry jam. First batches of the year and I'm glad to have it back in my life. Wishing of the day when we have a second freezer, or a deep freezer, so I can make a lot more at once, and only once. Anyway it's been a good week. I'm looking forward to a month from now when I hopefully am back to my old self. I hate feeling so lousy every day. I was thinking about it, how our bodies and spirits are so intimately connected. When we are healthy and exercising and eating right, we feel great! We have an overall sense of well-being, which is like saying our spirits are happy. My challenge is to stay UP emotionally and spiritually even when I feel so low, physically. I don't think I would do well with a chronic illness. I at least know there is an end to this. Not complaining, just saying. I'll stop rambling now, this post is getting long, and there's not even any pictures.

This Morning

This morning I decided that there is no girl in the world that looks cuter in pink than my Brynlee. Something about her fair skin and blue eyes when she wears pink...I just can't take my eyes off of her :).

This a.m. I ruined my good streak of no throwing up. Not that I don't feel nauseous (or nauseated?) all day every day, but I hadn't thrown up in over a week. But this morning I had a drink, and it went down the wrong tube. I started coughing, which automatically leads to barfing, and there went my breakfast. Darn it.

We went grocery shopping this morning. When we came home, Tyler had to go to the bathroom. So I un-snapped his pants and he ran in the house to do his business. He came out with his pants still undone (that's still my job, I don't know how old he will be when he figures it out) but I couldn't help him because both of my arms were loaded with grocery sacks. I took the groceries inside, and Brynlee took off down the driveway headed straight for the road. It's her favorite thing to do, mostly because she knows she's not supposed to. Tyler takes off after her to stop her--such a helpful boy--with his pants still open, and starting to fall down. I come back out and see this whole scene playing out and can't help but laugh at my dangerous daughter and half-naked son.

Yesterday while telling Kenny about how I just have so little energy all day, and I'm so tired no matter how much sleep I get, he suggested getting a snickers bar. That's what helps him at work, apparently. :) So while at the store this morning, I picked up a couple packs of those snack-size snickers bars for $1. I've had 3. Not because I think snickers will cure pregnancy, but I thought that sounded so good once he said it, I couldn't get them out of my head. Nice excuse to eat chocolate, huh? I'm debating whether I should tell him I bought them, or not. Guess it's too late now.

Beautiful

On Friday, Kenny came home from work and said, "that was a pretty negative post on your blog today."

"Must have been because I was in a pretty negative mood today", I responded.

But he's right. And I'm sorry about that. I shouldn't use this blog to complain and whine, especially when I have so little to complain about. My life is wonderful, and I will try to focus more on the positive. With that said, here are some of the things that were beautiful to me this weekend.

A yard of freshly mowed grass. (Have I ever mentioned how it smells really strong of onions each time Kenny mows the lawn? It's because of all the wild onions that grow spontaneously. It's very interesting.)

His imagination...

These delicious cookies I made on Friday (and we still have a lot left)

His love

Her crazy curls

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend.

Spring Suffering

Here's something that's terribly ironic; Brynlee and I both have bad allergies right now, Kenny and Tyler do not. Why is that terribly ironic? Because I can't take any allergy medicine that helps because I'm pregnant, Brynlee can't take anything because she's too young (although I'm not sure if her allergies or teething are the real problem). Kenny and Tyler would both be able to take stuff, but neither of them have any problems. I think that's a cruel joke, but this is my 3rd spring being pregnant, so it's not like I didn't expect it.

If you show up at my house unexpectedly, I will not be wearing make up. But that's the least of our problems here. Allergies prevent me from opening up every window in my house, like I love to do. (Which also means I have to turn on the AC and I hate paying money for that when it would be so nice with the windows open...) This makes it so that it doesn't air out my house, which means the kitchen really stinks. Not to anyone else, but to my pregnant nose, I can't handle it. I can't do anything until I fill up one of the sinks with Lemon scented Pine sol and let it sit there all day. It prevents me from puking, and occassionally inspires cleaning to happen. :) I know that it will pass and in a few weeks we'll all be doing much better, but for now I'm trying to not get too frustrated about it.

Overwhelmed

I blame it all on pregnancy hormones. You know how every emotion you feel is multiplied, ten fold. The only word that comes to mind each time is overwhelmed! In some ways it's a beautiful thing, and possibly even a gift. I feel overwhelmed with gratitude for the Lord. I feel so richly blessed and feel so undeserving, too. I am so happy to be living here, and that we're all healthy, that I haven't thrown up in a whole week, Kenny has a great job, my kids are awesome and as cute as can be, and on top of it all we're getting another little baby to bless our lives. Often times at the end of the day, before Kenny and I fall asleep we talk about Tyler and Brynlee, and how much we love them. We laugh at things they did or said, and it's amazing to think we get to do this all over again, and love another little child just as much. I guess I didn't expect to be this excited, since it's our third. I think I expected the excitement to wear off after the first or second, but we are just as thrilled! Along those lines, I feel overwhelmed with love for my little family. When Kenny calls at the end of the day to let me know he's on his way home, I am so excited to talk to him and tear up at how happy he makes me. I love him more deeply lately, and I'm so grateful for how much he does for me and for our family. Me crying, or tearing up happens all too many times during the day. Tyler will say something sweet, or Brynlee will just smile and laugh or snuggle up to me, and I feel as though my heart will burst. (Pregnancy makes me somewhat emotionally unstable, obviously!)

But of course, there's opposition in all things. And with these added emotions of love and gratitude, I also have lots of extra stress and anxiety and get overwhelmed all too easily over the simplest things. I've had many small moments of "oh my gosh why I am I pregnant!? I can't even handle the two I've got!" Cooking and cleaning seem like huge ordeals. If I do well one day I am proud of myself, until I wake up the next morning and realize I have to do it again. Then I feel like crawling back into bed and not getting up haha. Not every day, but you know. So this is my overwhelmingly weird post. By the way, I am almost 7 weeks along, due roughly December 3rd. I haven't been to the doctor yet, so that might all change.

I've been tagged

10 things that make me happy:

1. When Kenny says funny things like, "stupid idgit"
2. perfect weather
3. when Brynlee sleeps the whole night and doesn't wake up early (it's been a few weeks)
4. when Tyler eats something healthy without gagging himself
5. playing the piano, more specifically when I work hard to learn a song, and then can play it well
6. sewing, especially if it turns out cute
7. making yummy food, especially desserts!
8. a clean house
9. watching Tyler and Brynlee learn new things
10. working out

5 pieces of trivia about me:

1. I'M PREGNANT!! (What a classy way to break the news, huh?)
2. I've lived outside of the country twice
3. I've never lived anywhere longer than 5 years, average length of time in any one place is about 2 years.
4. When it comes to shaving my legs, I am really lazy and put it off as long as I can
5. I love to read, and wish I had more time to do it.


I tag: Stacie Weston, Shalean, Shalee, and Cami (and anyone else that feels like doing it)

Favorite quotes from my favorite talk

My favorite talk from this last General Conference was Sister Julie B. Beck's. She always speaks right to me. To see the whole talk, click here.

A good woman knows that she does not have enough time, energy, or opportunity to take care of all of the people or do all of the things her heart yearns to do. Life is not calm for most women, and each day seems to require the accomplishment of a million things, most of which are important. A good woman must constantly resist alluring and deceptive messages from many sources telling her that she is entitled to more time away from her responsibilities and that she deserves a life of greater ease and independence. But with personal revelation, she can prioritize correctly and navigate this life confidently.

The ability to qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill that can be acquired in this life.

Those who earnestly seek help through prayer and scripture study, often have a paper and pencil nearby to write questions and record impressions and ideas.

When women nurture as Christ nurtured, a power and peace can descend to guide when help is needed. For instance, mothers can feel help from the Spirit even when tired, noisy children are clamoring for attention, but they can be distanced from the Spirit if they lose their temper with their children.

Quoting Eliza R. Snow: "We want to be ladies in very deed...fit companions of the Gods and Holy Ones. In an organized capacity we can assist each other in not only doing good but in refining ourselves, and whether few or many come forward to help prosecute this great work, they will be those that will fill honorable positions in the Kingdom of God...Women should be women and not babies that need petting and correction all the time. I know we like to be appreciated, but if we do not get all the appreciation that we think is our due, what matters? We know the good Lord has laid high responsibility on us, and there is not a wish or desire that the Lord has implanted in our hearts in righteousness, but will be realized, and the greatest good we can do to ourselves and each other is to refine and cultivate ourselves in everything that is good and ennobling to qualify us for those responsibilities."

We are doing well when we seek to improve ourselves and do our best. We are doing well when we increase faith and personal righteousness, strengthen families and home, and seek out and help others who are in need. We know we are successful when we live so that we qualify for, receive, and know how to follow the Spirit.
We can feel certain that the Lord is pleased when we feel the Spirit working through us.

Saturday in St. Louis

Friday I did a lot of cleaning, and Kenny helped me with some yard work too, so that we could play all day Saturday. And play we did! We headed out early to go to the St. Louis zoo. It's free to get into the zoo, but parking is usually $11. However, this time Kenny just dropped us off by the entrance and went and parked on a street so that was free too! I love free things. And when you get there the first hour it's open, the chilren's place is free instead of 5 bucks a person. So anyway the kids loved the zoo. We haven't been since last year and it was so much better this time! I didn't have to stop and go sit in a dirty bathroom stall to nurse Brynlee, and she enjoyed the animals just like Ty. Babies are wonderful, but doing family things like this is a lot more fun when they're just a little bit older.

There were so many beautiful flowers (mostly tulips) that they had all over. I was taking a picture of Ty and Bryn in front of them and this family walks by exclaiming how cute they are, etc. Then she says "hey I'll take a picture of all of you! It's going to be so cute!" she was really excited to do it, so of course I said sure! And Kenny and I didn't plan on matching, haha. We're not cheesy matchers like that. It just happened and we were too lazy to change when we realized.

We were at the zoo for like 4 hours and Bryn was exhausted. So we got some lunch and let her take a little nap in the car. Then we went to the Gateway Arch! We didn't want to wait in long lines and pay lots of money to go to the top, but it was still fun to walk around it and stuff. We had fun the next couple hours just walking around and playing. We stuck our feet in the cold, dirty Mississippi River (well I did), and danced on the sidewalk to the Jazz music being played, rolled down the hill, and played tag (Tyler's new favorite game). We also watched some wedding pictures on the stairs with the arch in the background. Since our anniversary is this month, it was fun to watch them. The weather was perfect on Saturday for this wedding, just like it was for ours.

Friday Evening Fun

We were outside playing baseball and such on Friday, and the sun was hitting my kids so beautifully I had to run inside and get the camera. I didn't edit any, but I still think they're cute. I told Kenny that the sun was giving our little angels their golden halos haha.

Kenny loves to chuck our kids around, and our kids love to be chucked around, so it works out well. It's still pretty exhilarating for Brynlee.

But look at Tyler's face here. He's totally looking over at the neighbor's backyard to see what's going on, not even phased by the fact that he's way up in the air.He's been thrown around far too much apparently.

And my favorite one of the night...

I love that the sun stays out longer, it's so much fun to play outside together.

It's pouring

It's been a pretty lousy morning. But this afternoon thunderstorm is just what I needed to cheer me up. I'm not kidding--I LOVE a good rainstorm with thunder and lightning. It's so exciting. I'm not going to let it ruin our dinner plans for tonight...first grill of the year! Kenny's coming home early (so like 5:30) so he can grill us up some hamburgers. I guess we'll just move it to the open garage. I guess we'll be spending the rest of our day indoors. Happy spring to all of you.

Painting in our panties

Yesterday afternoon it got really warm. I had all the windows open and the fans on, but it was still reading 81 degrees inside. So we went outside, and I stripped the kids down to their knickers. (Isn't it so nice to be a little kid and get away with running around naked?) Brynlee in her diaper, and Tyler in his Wall-E underwear. We ate popsicles, and painted, and focused on the letter P. Tyler is really good at identifying all his letters, but not at writing them. He can only legibly write letters T, and O. So today we tried painting it, which requires a little less fine motor skills. Brynlee sure enjoys getting messy, although really I sometimes think that she doesn't even realize the difference. It's not that she loves it, or hates it, she just seems oblivious to the whether she's clean or dirty. She can be covered in yogurt, or paint, or whatever, and go on her merry little way as if nothing is different. I love it.

(lest you think he does them all perfectly, I painted those P's, and he was tracing over them with the brush :) )

"Blossoms popping right before my eyes..."

There's this beautiful tree in our front yard that I just love, but mostly in the spring.




This was during the sunrise this morning.

This bright yellow bush is outside our bedroom window, bordering ours and our neighbors' house.

And of course the wonderful dandelions and clover that have sprung up ALL over our yard. I'm pretty sure that if we got some weed killer stuff, we wouldn't have a yard left.

I just love the spring.

Happy Easter

We had a great Easter Sunday!! The kids were so happy to see their Easter baskets when they woke up. Tyler was most excited about his miniature baseball mit and ball. "It's just my size!" We took some pictures outside because it was just perfect weather again! The kids looked so cute in their easter outfits! We loved listening to conference. After the first session, we talked to both of our families on the phone and had lunch. Then we went to our friends, the Pearson's, for the 2nd session. The Reeds were there too. The kids did an easter egg hunt after conference was done. I wish so bad I would've brought my camera. Tyler understood everything, and grabbed a bunch of eggs, but he was a little bit scared because it was pretty windy. Brynlee liked walking around with everyone, but obviously didn't get it. I handed her a couple eggs and she liked shaking them to hear the candy inside. It was fun anyway, and I'm glad they were able to do it with a bunch of other kids, because that's a lot more fun than just the two of them. After that we went back inside and had a delicious dinner with traditional easter ham (my favorite!). We had a wonderful time talking and being together. We were so grateful that we were able to spend Easter with friends, because we were missing our families!

What a great day to focus on Christ and His incredible sacrifice for us. I know that He lives! I feel so blessed to have the knowledge of the gospel and can't imagine my life without it. I love my growing little family so much and am so grateful that we can be together forever!

Blabbering

Tyler is sick. He got a cough earlier this week and it just kept getting worse. He also felt a little feverish on Thurs. so I had been giving him tylenol. His cough got so bad and I could tell he was not feeling well. So I took him to the doctor on Friday and come to find out he has strep throat! I feel so bad. He was suffering way more than i realized. I'm glad he had such a bad cough, or I never would have known. Now he's been on the antibiotic for over 24 hours and is doing much better.

Tonight Brynlee just fell out of the tub. I had walked out for a second to grab hers and Tyler's pajamas, and the next thing I hear a plop. I instantly knew what had happened. She was trying to climb out, and like a wet fish, she just slipped over the edge. She only cried for a second cuz it scared her, but no marks.

Speaking of fish, she does the sign for fish now, too. She just loves animals, and so does Ty. If we had a fence around our yard, you can bet we would have gotten a dog a long time ago. We went to the pet store again today (in between sessions) because it's their favorite place to go, and on Saturdays they have dogs there for people to adopt. We just pet them. After the pet store we went and got frozen custard at Bobby's! It was only the second time we've been there since we've lived here. It is so insanely good. It is the most popular, and best tasting custard place in probably the whole state of Illinois.

I coaxed Kenny into doing a little spring cleaning with me this weekend. But he came up with genius plan to get out of doing too much: "How about we just do one room a weekend?" Whatever. As long as he'll help me I don't care how many weekends it takes :).

I absolutley love general conference. I always want to be so much better after listening to all the talks. It really is a wonderful time of year.

Kenny bought a miter saw off of Craigslist and had to drive to O'Fallon, IL to pick it up this morning. On the way, he nearly got hit by a really old lady who got on the freeway going the wrong direction! She nearly ran into him head on, and swerved, and then she nearly got hit by a semi! I sure hope that she made it home safely (and without killing anyone else) and I hope her family takes away her license. That really is scary.

Also about Tyler, he is such a worry wart. The past week or so, he has developed a pretty intense fear of the wind. I know that sounds hilarious, but it's not. It's so annoying. We can't just play outside anymore like normal children do. I don't even know where it came from, or why it bothers him so much, but it does. He is CONSTANTLY asking about EVERYTHING blowing away, especially him and Brynlee. It's very hard for me to calmly and continually reassure him that nobody and nothing will blow away. I've tried all sorts of ways to talk to him about it: The wind is our friend. Wind is nice to us. It just keeps us cool on hot days. The wind is just angels blowing kisses. We really like the wind, it's fun to have it blow on our faces. It makes the leaves dance around the yard. etc. etc. I know he listens and takes it in (because he repeats things back to me at later times), but he is not convinced. What to do?

He asks a lot of questions, and I try my best to answer them as literally, and honestly as possible to help him understand and learn. I made the mistake of explaining (after he asked) why we wear sunscreen. Now he thinks the sun is going to BURN us. He remembers all too well when he touched the hot stove. You might say it was burned into his memory. haha, good one. But anyway, it's more of a challenge to get him outside the past few days with the burning sun and ferocious wind and all. Nature is out to get him!