Going to the Movies!!

We splurged and took the girls to see Walle yesterday morning! It was super cute! I don't think we will take the girls to a movie for a long time though! $28 is just a bit much to pay all at once (sorry mom and dad! - I'm remembering all the movies you've taken us to! Yikes!). Their policy is that children 11 and under are $7. WHAT??? We had to pay for our 2 year old. Our 2 year old that only paid attention for about half of it and who sat on our lap almost the whole time. AND I think if she'd been one they'd still have charged us. I was a bit bitter about that. Otherwise the whole experience was delightful! Go see Walle!

Summer Haircut

This morning I practiced my haircutting skills on Anika. Don't laugh - I know you're remembering our little tragedy we had with Nathan's hair last year!! But I've improved drastically! As far as his hair goes. I've never cut Anika's before. I thought there was a pretty good chance I would butcher it but I figured - WHAT THE HECK. It's the first day of summer and it will grow out! I actually think it turned out rather cute! I attempted to do layers - not sure how that went. And I know that it's a little uneven in places - but luckily it's not too obvious! Right???? Anyway - she's happy! And that's what matters. She pretty much thinks she's the cutest girl in the world. And she's right. I love this little miss. Here she is!

Raise your hand if you have pregnant brain...

Yeah - that would be me.
I thought tomorrow was the last day of school for Anika. Woops. Wasn't prepared when everyone else was bringing their teacher gifts today. Never fear though - we pulled it off (late) and I thought our gifts were rather cute! =)

Here is my little missy with her teacher and teacher assistants.
Her teacher is on the far left.

In case you didn't see the link....

CAN I HAVE YO NUMBER

This little video that Kelyn showed me in ID is where I got all those lovely lines. =) Pretty darn hilarious. =)

disclaimer - the dangs aren't actually "dangs"

Can I have yo number???

(Kelyn and Tess - this is for you)

DANG!!
DANG!!
Oh, DANG!!
OK...ok...ok
Scu me, can I talk to you for a minute???
EXCU me - CAN I TALK TO YOU FO A MINUTE???

"Who me????"

Uh yeah - I just wanna let you know - the back of yo head is RIDIKOLUS!!

"Oh, thank you!!

Yeah! You are welcome!!
So listen, Can I have yo number???Can I have yo number? Can I have it???

"ha ha - ummm"

What's yo name delicate??

Oh Girl!! Don't be insecure girl!!! OWN that ponytail!!
Work that up do!

Oh Dang!! Your kind of sexy when you take my advice!! I like dat!!
So - Can I have yo number??

Alright - I know. I so don't have a ponytail. And I am so embarrassed to be posting pictures of me - but here you go!! ME at 19 weeks. Baby says hello!!

Whateva.

How accurate do you think these things actually are??

Really?... Bummer.

After waiting for an hour and a half and worrying that I had been forgotten the first thing the doctor and I got to chat about was my weight.

"Brittanie, let's talk about your weight."

"Um, okay."

"You gained 7 pounds this past month."

"Oh. Um. Is that not normal???" haha.

"No - 2 or 3 pounds is normal. So, what have you been eating? Ice-cream?"

*giggling nervously and about to burst into tears*

"How did you guess?!"

"Brittanie, Brittanie (he pats my belly) - you can't contribute to the giant!"

FYI - Kes was almost 11 pounds so we are trying to keep this pregnancy under control.

"haha - okay."

So. I guess I am only allowed to gain 3 pounds this next month. Don't people who throw up a lot their first trimester usually have a hard time gaining weight? Well, not me!! In fact I excel!!

THEN, to top it all off, when the appt. was almost over I a said - "So, do I get to schedule an appt. for my ultrasound?!!" He then says that they usually don't do the ultrasound until 28 weeks. WHAT?????? Sorry buddy. I am SO not waiting another 2 and a half months to find out what we are having (it's a boy - it's gotta be). I think he saw the disappointment on my face because he said he'd work it out so I'll get an appt. Thank you.

So, that's the baby update! I'm feeling good for the most part and the baby is moving lots so that is fun!!

G'bye Jenny!!

Behold - our vast amounts of beauty:

You know this picture is awesome of both of us!!
We miss you guys already and wish you the best of luck with everything!!

Idaho!

Here is the rundown! Our flight there was pretty good except that the movie screens were down so I didn't get to watch a movie. =( The girls are really great on airplanes! We got into Utah and were met by the whole crew minus a couple of the kids and dad. It's great when we are all together. I love it! Tragedy struck as we left the airport:
It was a rainy day and Kelyn's van started hydroplaning and they spun off the road. Nobody was hurt and the van only needed a new tire. Thank goodness!! By the way, that isn't Kelyn's van in the picture. =) Haha! I ended up getting to drive Kelyn's van the rest of the way because I get car sick and she had been driving for a very long time already. We rocked out to Sons of Provo and had a grand time. Favorite song of the trip: Diddly Wack Mack Mormon Daddy for sure. =) Favorite line from the song: My testimony keeps me warm - so flippin' warm. Haha! Those are some funny songs! Dad had made burritos - my favorite - and we all just hung out for the night!
Highlights from the trip in no particular order:

*Dad took all the older girls - Alyssa and up - out to dinner and a movie. We saw Prince Caspian and I thought it was fabulous!
*We watched family home videos and I'm not in them much. But when I am, it's pretty embarrassing! I think I just did my best to stay away from the camera. =) Except when we did music videos. =) We watched all of those too. A word of warning to Mandi, Jenny R., Heidi, Amber D. and Paola - don't get on my bad side or I might just be tempted to show the world your stuff. =) I'm totally kidding - I would only do that to Brittney! =) But seriously, I wish you guys could see these videos we made way back in the day - I laughed so hard I cried. Especially the ones with Heidi. YIKES!! It was really fun to see everybody when they were little and when our family had first combined. Kind of sad to think of all the years that have gone by and to realize how fast time goes. Hannah, Joseph and Alyssa were all so tiny and now they are all 12 and up!! *sob*
* Kensi's graduation. I can't believe she's 18 and out of school! She didn't even cry! I cried with joy at my graduation. I was so happy to be done with high school and moving on! Now I sort of wish I could go back and make myself LOVE high school so that I would cry over leaving rather than being overjoyed at the thought of NEVER GOING BACK to that place again. Anyway, she did great - she looked beautiful, didn't trip even though she was wearing tall heels and she even got to wear a special rope around her neck because she was an honor student.
* All the girls went to Amber's work - CRAIGOS. It was SO yummy! They have a lunch buffet and you get salad, pizza and you get to go to a pasta bar and choose the kind of pasta and sauce. THEN they have dessert pizza. So delish.
* Me, Dad, Kelyn, Mom, Kensi and Amber (at the end) gathered for the season finale of LOST. Oh Sawyer. I love you. Jin - I refuse to believe you're gone. Ben - are you a bad guy or not? And Desmond - all I can do is PURRRRRRR. <---that's supposed to be a rolling tongue sound because he is OH SO DREAMY.
* Tessa and I got into a mini water fight - she started it of course. But the best part is when I was running away downstairs and she threw a cup of water at me from the top of the stairs and it hit the wall and all of mom's pretty stuff and her beautiful table and it was right as mom was coming up the stairs and you should have seen her face!! She kept her cool, though. =)
* They have such a fun splash park with slides and everything!! It was pretty crowded with older kids - college kids included - but it was awesome!! We also got to ride on the carousel which always terrifies Anika. =)
* Two words - DAIRY QUEEN. Probably 5 times.
* Throwing up and such * Playing at the park
* Hannah's softball game and snoasis.
* Artco. Love that place.
* The Beatles Tribute concert - Rob and Cyneil and their kids came up to Idaho for a couple days and went with us to the concert! It was so much fun!! This is the same exact concert (same people and all) that I went to in North Carolina when I was 15!! At that concert I was dancing by the front of the stage and even jumped on stage to give George a hug but a security guard literally grabbed me and THREW me off the stage! Afterwards we all waited by their dressing room and then came out and gave us guitar picks and autographs. Too bad we didn't get pics!! We tried to be groupies at this concert but we asked to late - the front was all full. We just danced like crazy on the bleachers!! We had such a great time!!

We did lots of other little things and it was just so great to be with my family. My girls love Grandma and Grandpa and all their aunts and uncle Joseph and their cousins. It was such a fun time and we were so sad to leave!! We did have a fun surprise at the Salt Lake airport- when we got off the elevator we looked up and saw Carol coming toward us and for a minute I was beyond confused!! Were we in Phoenix and she had come to see us off? Wait, she has luggage - is she going to come home with us?! It turns out that she was their for her niece's wedding and had been waiting at the airport all day for us just so she could see us and take up to lunch! It was the best surprise ever!! She got the girls a couple prizes that kept them entertained for a lot of the trip. I totally threw up on the way home - because that's what I do on airplanes and it was so great to see Nathan when we finally made it home!! He is the best and had our house scrubbed and spotless. Mom and Dad - thank you so much for letting us come stay!! We love you so much!! BubbleShare: Share photos - Find great Clip Art Images.

Camping in Rhode Island

Finally!! We have had such a fun month! Over Memorial weekend we went camping in Rhode Island and then came home and turned around and left for Idaho the next morning! Camping was great fun but I can tell you that waking up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom is NOT pleasant when you have to walk to a port-a-potty a ways away from the tent. I imagined all sorts of things jumping at me. I was SO tempted to squat but just couldn't do it knowing that there were other campers mere feet away. I miss the AZ camping that I grew up with. I'd much prefer to find a tree in the wilderness and squat than to use a port-a-potty. Not my cup of tea I can tell you that. =) On Saturday morning we played in the stream that was right by our campsite and that was great fun! I wish that there had been crodads to catch! By the way- did you read about that 8 ft. fossil they found of a sea scorpion?!! Oh. My. GOSH!

The girls posing with purple bug repellent on their faces.

Anika and I by our pond. I'm still mad I didn't catch a frog...
I'm pure loveliness, I know.

Here is the stream!

Here we are on our "hike".

Connor and Anika busy being in love.

Jenny, Josh, and Jack came and hung out just for the day.

After lunch we went to the beach! It was SUPPOSED to be a beautiful day. =)

It was actually windy and very cold! But that didn't stop the kids...


She is in the middle of something very important right now - can you guess?
Happy Birthday Josh!! Scott and Jenn made a yummy cobbler for his b-day treat!
We ate lots of hot dogs, pancakes and smores and played some mean games of UNO. =) Then on Sunday morning we packed up and headed home! Lots of fun!!

Poor, Neglected Blog

I don't know if I've ever gone this long between posts!! Between being sick and traveling, I just haven't had the time or desire! We just got back from our trip to Idaho a few days ago and things are finally settling down so you can look for new updates over the next couple of days!!

I'll start by going way back to early May when we got to go to dinner with Jared (Nathan's brother)! It was such a fun surprise and we definitely didn't get to hang out long enough but it was still super fun! He was only in town for the night. The girls LOVE him!! Check out these adoring faces!!



He was a really good sport to squish into the backseat and have Anika's car seat falling on him the whole time. =) We are crossing our fingers that he gets to come again soon!!

I'm so glad I married Nathan. Happy anniversary honey!!

I want my hair to smell good...

The last couple of nights Nathan's hair has smelled amazing. He swears it's just his Head and Shoulders shampoo. Well, I can't seem to find anything that makes my hair smell good like that. Or at least any smell that ever hits Nathan's spot. So, this morning I gave his shampoo a shot. It's a 2in1. NOT FOR ME. I had so many tangles and rats! AND - it did not have that lovely tropical smell that Nathan's hair had. SHEESH!! So - what makes your hair smell good? Give a girl some advice here...



If all goes according to plan I will be devouring a cone full of Ben and Jerry's ice cream this afternoon. Thank you Ben. Thank you Jerry. IT'S FREE CONE DAY!! I'm so excited that I dreamed about it last night. I'm reading Interview With a Vampire right now so my dreams were full of vampires and ice-cream. It was the weirdest thing. I was a vampire (I think) but still just a regular high school student and I went to the mall and Melissa Washer (a girl I went to Elementary school with - random, I know!) came up to me and was very angry that I hadn't given her her Sonic coupon yet. Then I was with my friend Renee ( we were looking for a Ben and Jerry's) and we ran into an old boyfriend and he wanted to show us his new car and it was a really WEIRD Mustang. Then we drove to Granny and Papa's house and ate our ice cream. Anyway - it was a really awesome dream as I'm sure you can tell. Haha! Dreams never sound cool when you are trying to tell someone about them. Anyway, go get your free ice cream!! If you don't want any ice cream I will go with you and wait outside and you can go in and get some anyway and then give it to me. One scoop really isn't enough...

I'm having a bit of a relapse this week. It all started on Sunday. I'm pretty sure my shot wore off. For some reason I wasn't giving credit to the shot for feeling better so at my last Dr. appt. I said that I would prefer to not get another shot and just take vitamin B6 pills instead. Well - I never went and got them and now I wish I had started taking them a week ago when I was feeling good OR better yet just gotten another shot! So, I'm back to the being sick all day and throwing up. It gets really bad at lunch time and lasts through the rest of the day. I've taken 2 of the vitamins so hopefully it kicks in soon!!

Keslie and I are just hanging out while Anika is at school. It's been a really rainy week so at least I don't have to feel guilty about not taking them out to play! Everything looks extra green when it rains. I love it! Anyway, Kes is SO funny. She did everything I said to do -

SMILE!!

Tongue in nose!! She tried!

Kissy face!

Scary face!

Keslie likes to call me MUDDER. Especially when she's asking me for something.
"Please can I have some fruit snacks mudder?". My girls hit my spot so much.

Just Bein' Happy!

I figured you were all tired of looking at the lovely picture of me and the oven so I had better post something! =) Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures! SOON though!! I promise!!

This week I have been REVELING in the beauty of SPRING and all the color and wonder that comes along with it! I feel like it's woken me up on the inside and I'm bursting at the seams with plans and ideas and projects!! I'm just happy to feel motivated again. I am almost 11 weeks pregnant and I am feeling great now (for the most part). I still get kinda yucky at night but at least we can party during the day!! I think I neglected my girls and my house for a full month. Anika and Keslie seemed fine - they've got each other. =) There is something about being able to open the windows and let fresh air in the house! The girls are having a blast picking dandelions and I get a new bouquet of them every day. We live in such a GLORIOUS, BEAUTIFUL world!!

I have also been reveling in my girls and in being a mom. This past week I feel like there have been so many moments that I want to box up for my future self so that I NEVER forget. It's just little things -

This morning around 6:30 AM I heard Keslie come pitterin' into my room and I made up my mind to ignore her and maybe she would just go away. At first she came and stood next to my bed on the side my back was facing and then she walked around to where my face was. I felt her climb up on the bed (still ignoring her at this point!!) and I felt her breathing on my face - she was that close! And then she was Eskimo kissing my nose and my cheek and giving me lovely, wet lip kisses. It was the sweetest wake up ever!!

Yesterday when we dropped Anika off I gave her a quick squeeze good-bye and watched her start walking to the door and then turned around to find Keslie. All the sudden I felt her (Anika) throw her arms around my legs and squeeze super hard and then she just took off to her class. I just stood there loving that moment.

Those are a couple examples. I am just so grateful for my girlies. I love the ages that they are at and I'm enjoying this time in my life so much. I was thinking about being a mom today. It really is such a roller coaster. Some weeks I feel like the best mom ever and then the next week I'll feel like a failure and a loser. I know our standard answer is always "You're awesome and you're doing the best you can and you shouldn't get down on yourself!!". I have to say that as much as I hate feeling crappy - I'm glad when I feel that way because it usually motivates me to be better. It helps me take a look at things and realize that maybe I'm not doing the best I can and I need to step it up a notch. It's just so fun to be such a big part in helping these sweet kids create fun, happy memories!

SO - I am SUPER pumped up about gardening and canning and dehydrating and food storage!! I'm going to try the SQUARE FOOT GARDEN this year and I've also planted strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries (in pots). Cool, huh?

Now, a word about a couple TV shows. I was SO excited for the new episode of LOST last night! I wish I could figure out if Ben is good or bad or what! I'm totally peeved about the way American Idol is going. I know that some of you are big Brooke fans - but let's face it - she should have been gone a few weeks ago! I was SURE the bottom two were going to be Brooke and Jason and I was a little upset when it was Carly and Syesha because they both blow Brooke and Jason out of the water. I've decided that I want to try out for American Idol. I practice every day in the shower and I think I have a fighting chance! =) Nathan says "NO BRITTANIE!! You'd be put on the blooper reel!!". =) The other day the girls pulled out the DVD with some music videos my sisters and I made. Of course I had to watch. It solidified my resolve to try out. Yes, I'm THAT good!

For your viewing pleasure I have a clip of said music video. Forgive me Brittney!

And YES - I did just waste my valuable time recording this off of my TV. Recording the TV with your camera makes a really LOW quality video. Sorry.
NO - we do not have a flat screen.
No - I could not have worn my overalls any lower.
Yes - that is a T-shirt with the sleeves rolled up.
No - we did not have a choreographer. Those moves are ours and ours alone. =)
Yes - there is more where these came from. Even better! Unfortunately they reside in Idaho. My personal favorite is NSYNC - Tearin' up my heart.

This is dedicated to my sweet husband because I know how much he loves our music videos and I know that he won't be embarrassed of me AT all. =)

AMERICAN IDOL, HERE I COME!! =)



Randy - YOU GIRLS WERE SMOKIN' HOT TONIGHT BABY!!! Watch out America - DIVAS ARE IN THE HOUSE!!
Paula - First of all, you look beautiful!! You can do anything you put your mind to. Your voices are flawless and you will go very far in this business. I love you. America loves you!
Simon - That was very sexy! A couple parts of the song were awkward for me and felt more like music videos made in your living room but the song choice was brilliant and you'll sail through to the next round!

For the record, I love Simon.

And that, my friends, is talent at it's finest. Have a WONDERFUL SPRING DAY!!

Because my house is very, very cold and no heat should be wasted.

I LOVE PUDDING!!

My stomach feels like it's on fire all the time so I think that's why I crave COLD things. This week has been a million times better than last week!! I think that shot might have helped!

It was such a fun week! We've enjoyed really pleasant, sunny days and the girls and I spent hours at the park with friends! We even got sunburns! I tell you what - I much prefer being outside than being in my house. There are smells galore when I'm indoors and it doesn't help much with my nausea!






Last night Nathan I went out to dinner with some of his classmates and their wives! It was really fun! We got Indian food and it was SO tasty! It was great getting to know everyone better. I hope we do it again really soon. I wish I'd gotten a picture of all of us! Oh well...

Well - I'm off to enjoy the day - I love springtime in CT!!