Neigh, Moo, Cock-A-Doodle-Doo...

A sweet little baby is almost due!  Carla and Zach's baby, that is.  And we are SO excited to meet this little one. On Sunday we threw a baby shower for her. This whole last month my time has been consumed with all the planning, decorating, and crafting for this shower...not because I had to, but because it was so much fun!  I just couldn't stop!  I'm sure Jarod is relieved it is over so I can finally put my craft room (a.k.a the storage room) back together again. 

Since Carla and Zach both grew up on the farm we thought it was fitting to have a baby farm animal theme.  Between Sommer, Camille, Jennifer, Catherine and me, we came up with some fun ideas and delicious food.

My favorite thing to make were these chalkboard pedestals, an idea I found on Pintrest.  It took a while to paint, stain, and glue them together but I think they turned out really nice and I'll definitely be able to use them for all occasions. 

Carla got so many nice baby gifts so they should be all set.  And it's a good thing too because I got a message from her today saying she is already dilating and 75% effaced!  Thank you baby for waiting until after the shower to make your appearance!

Valentines

We had a very fun Valentine's Day at home.  The day before I received a beautiful bouquet of Gerber daisies and a balloon from my loving husband.  I love getting flowers and he knows it.  There's been times when he's brought home flowers for no reason at all and many of our special occasions have been celebrated with flowers.  The best was right after I had Andrew.  He brought me a beautiful bouquet of blues and yellows and thanked me for all of my hard work.  I'll always remember that!

I wanted to do little things to make Valentine's Day special.  We started out with chocolate pancakes with whipped cream and bananas for breakfast. 

Then, throughout the day I left goodies with little love notes tied to them for Jarod in places where he'd least expect them.  His favorite was when we showed up at work with a latte and note that read "We love you a latte".  A little cheesy but it was fun!

Andrew really enjoyed opening his valentines from both grandmas and grandpas.  I'm glad he gets excited about opening mail.  I do too!

For a special treat we made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  We saved some for ourselves and took the rest in to Shopko for the opticians t enjoy.  

The day ended with a candlelit dinner of cheese ravioli, bread, and my favorite wine.  It was a good day and I'm so glad I got to share it with my 3 boys...the loves of my life.

3 Months of Cuteness

Waiting For Snow

It finally happened!  It snowed enough to get the snow blower out!  

Andrew has been waiting for this forever.  He was a happy boy this morning!

An ALMOST Very Bad Day

Andrew is obsessed with Baby Einstein.  We have this DVD that shows all kinds of animals set to music.  He LOVES it.  He wants to watch it all the time and will sit down in front of the TV and whine to get me to turn it on for him.  This morning was a particularly bad morning as I had woken up with Dominic four times and once with Andrew the night before.  I was exhausted and just wanted to go back to sleep, so I turned on the DVD first thing in the morning for him.  Right away when it was over he started whining about watching it again.  I could tell this was not going to be a good day.  I couldn't distract him with his toys, I thought about going outside...but a quick check of the thermometer said it was 15 degrees. 

Then I remembered there was a new recipe for banana bread that I wanted to try.  It's a recipe that uses applesauce instead of oil, honey instead of sugar, and whole wheat flour instead of white.  So I thought we'd give it a try.  In no time, Andrew forgot about the DVD and dug right in.    

He had so much fun mixing and licking...

and was pretty proud of himself when it was all done.  It turned out great!  Delicious and good for you!  The rest of the day was smooth sailing.  Thank God! 

Dominic stays pretty well entertained throughout the day in the exersauser.  He has been such a stinker at night, but he is cutting his two bottom teeth, so I'm hoping when those pop through things will go back to normal!