Our summer & changes are a comin'

What have I been up to that has caused me to completely forget about my blog for the last few months??? This...

I opened an Etsy shop and it is doing really well. My largest order so far has been for 165 bees.

It was for a preschool summer camp in NY. The next two biggest orders both went to Australia for a school play. One was an order of 45 monkeys and the other was for 33 elephants.

I've been making a few cute things for Henry, like these tie onesies. I've also made a few clip on ties (sorry, no pic).

And I got Madie's Halloween costume made. Although, if you ask her, I still need to make her some gloves.


Madie took swim lessons in June. She did great and is an excellent swimmer now. She jumps right off the diving board and swims over to the steps all by herself and she is doing really well at swimming with her face underwater.

Henry is continuing to grow...and so is my belly. Madie keeps telling me that my belly is too big and that Henry needs to stop growing. He's already measuring in at 6 pounds...which is about 1 pound more than average. She actually yelled at him the other day. It was really funny. She was laying on the floor next to my bed and I was next to her, Zach usually takes on this role but Madie wasn't feel well and only wanted me. She was facing me and trying to roll over but there wasn't room, so she proceeded to say "Henry, move! Mom, Henry is stealing my spot. I'm trying to lay down and he's in the way!" She was not happy and I couldn't help but laugh.

Other than that, we've been busy with doctors appointments (twice a week now) and house hunting. Well after about 6 weeks, over a dozen viewings and 4 offers we found a house!!! It is in the downtown Gilbert area and we love it! It needs some work, but it has everything we wanted in a house. We are supposed to close on September 10th (yep, my due date) and then we'll take a few weeks to do some upgrades and repairs and probably move in some time in October. So if all goes well, this will be our house in a couple of weeks. I'll be sure to take lots of "before & after" pics of the things we change.


And last but not least...a few cute pictures of Madie :)

You've had a birthday, shout "Hooray"

Madie turned 4 last Tuesday!!! I still can't believe it! We started the day out by going to art class with Katie, then Zach & I took her to lunch at Wendy's. After that we had some visiting teaching to do and then we came home and went swimming. Finally, dinnertime rolled around and her cousins came over to party. When asked what she wanted for dinner, Madie responded with "waffles." So the kids all played and we had waffles (with pink whipped cream), hash browns, bacon & eggs for dinner. 

Madie (in her new birthday dress) waiting patiently to open her presents. 

 Grandma & Grandpa with baby Samuel (they didn't know I was taking the picture). That's a unicorn costume Abigail is wearing...I'm still not sure how she didn't get heat stroke in it!

 Some of the kids were kind of bored during the opening of presents...

 Madie opening the Belle nightgown she got from the Tolmans. To say she LOVED it would be an understatement!!!! She wore it to bed Tuesday night and then tried to convince me to let her wear it all day Wednesday as clothes. I think tonight is the first night she hasn't worn it to bed since she got it.

 Molly opening her birthday present from Auntie Lori & Uncle Justin. At first Kristi had Molly's present off to the side and Molly kept trying to open all of Madie's presents. Finally, they put her gift over in the pile with Madie's and then she would open it.

 The pink princess castle cake that Madie helped me make.

 Happy birthday little big girl!

Oh, and the title of the post is the song Madie requested we sing to her in Primary last week.

Preschool, Graduation & Mother's Day

Madie loves school! Whether it is art class with Katie (through the city) or the preschool co-op we did with some ladies in our stake or primary she just loves it! Here is a pic from one of our preschool lessons about construction. This was actually the last lesson I taught before I was put on bed rest. And she has been doing really well learning her Articles of Faith! She has passed off 1-5 and was ready to pass off #6 today, but they didn't do it today since it is Mother's Day.

Speaking of school...ZACH GRADUATED!!!!! It has been a long 4 years, but he did it (with honors even)! I'm so proud of him and all of his hard work. And thank you to all of the family that came out to support him that day!

 While Zach's parents were in town for graduation, we went to lunch together and then they took Madie shopping for her birthday. Here she is playing with Grandma Watson and her new birthday carriage (which she just LOVES, by the way).

 Madie enjoying a random May storm. It felt very monsoon-ish.

And this is the two of us before church this morning. Yes, we matched (the outfits were planned...the matching hair just sort of happened). The primary kids sang "I Often Go Walking" in Sacrament meeting and I received several compliments on how they did. It was so cute to see Madie up there singing. She did a great job of singing loudly, but not too loudly.

As far as Henry goes...he is growing really well. We had another check this last week for his heart (which beats irregular) and there was no change, so that means I get to go back for another check for that in two weeks. So as of right now, I'm been seen every 2 weeks by my ob to check on the clot and every 2 weeks by the perinatologist to check on Henry's heart. The good news is that he should out grow the arrhythmia though and it shouldn't cause any long term issues. The other good part about it is that it means we get to see him on u/s quite often. This picture is from 2 weeks ago...I got another 3d pic on Friday but don't feel like scanning it in right now.


Madie's birthday is on Tuesday so I'll post pics from that later in the week. Also, we had new pics taken of her and once I get those back I'll upload them.

Big belly

Madie was laying on the couch after dinner and sticking out her belly. She said to me, "my belly is getting bigger because I have lots and lots of babies in it!"

Oh and here is my big belly at 18 weeks.

Visits with family

In February, Lori came to visit. She stayed with us and Madie LOVED it!!! We enjoyed hanging out with her. On one particularly windy day, we went out and flew the kite. 

We enjoyed spending time with family to celebrate the February birthdays.

Ty and Miranda came to town on their way back to Delaware. We had a nice visit with them and Ana & Matt one Sunday night. Unfortunately, Madie was already in bed so Ty & Miranda came by the next morning to see her. She had fun playing Chutes & Ladders with them and meeting their dog, Stitch. 

Wrapping up 2011 and what to expect in 2012

So I finally took the time to get the pictures from December off my camera.
The first weekend we went to Sedona. It was snowy and the kids loved it!!!

 They had a treasure hunt, had a snowball fight and built snowmen.

 The second weened we went up to Oregon to visit the Watson side. We had a good time, but we probably won't be going up in the winter again anytime soon. It was sooo cold! We exchanged presents, went caroling and even went to the zoo.

 Christmas was great...a little rushed with church but overall we had a good day. Santa was very good to Madie this year. She must have been a really good girl.

 She got her first bike and had pretty much mastered it by the end of Christmas day.

 This picture is my favorite. I love the look on her face. This is how excited she was opening each of her gifts.

This is the awesome tie we got for my did. It's the leg lamp from A Christmas Story and it lights up. 

 I love this picture. I'm not sure what they were discussing...it looks to me like Madie was explaining something to Katie, who is listening very intently. These two girls are so cute together. I love that Madie has cousins her age. We didn't get any pictures of Dustin & Sarah's kids...not sure how that happened. But the kids all had a great time together.

Now, let's talk 2012.
Madie is a Sunbeam and she just LOVES it! She loves going to Primary. She has passed off her first two Articles of Faith already. She knew the first one from being in Nursery (I taught the song to all the nursery kids) and when she passed it off and got a chocolate for it she was adamant that I teach her the next one. So she learned number 2 in one week. And she is giving her first talk on Sunday. I'll tape it since grandparents can't be there.

Zach will be graduating in May!!! Hopefully he'll be able to get a job with a Landscape Architecture firm. There is one in Chandler that he has applied with and he is working on a job with them this week with his current company.

We are hoping that we will be able to buy a house this year. That will probably all depend on what kind of job Zach is able to get. We'd like to stay in the Chandler/Gilbert area. I try not to think about that too much yet, since it's still all up in the air.

Zach was extended a new calling yesterday...he won't be sustained for 2 more weeks, so I'll share then. But it is sort of uncharted territory for us.

And the last of our new adventures for this year is that we will become a family of 4! I'm due September 10th and Madie is so beyond excited to become a big sister.  She thinks it is a girl baby because it is in mommy's tummy, not daddy's. If it's a girl she wants to call her Aurora and if it's a boy, Phillip (can you tell she likes Sleeping Beauty?). She likes to ask me if the baby is sleeping and then she pats my tummy and says "wake up, baby." We're excited and now taking suggestions for boy names (we have a few girl names that we like, but no boy names).