Kapaldo Family

Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T14:28:00.008-05:00

When the girls got up on Tuesday morning I reminded them of what day it was. You would have thought it was Christmas. Abigail ran all over the room jumping and shouting, "It's Valentine's Day! It's Valentine's Day!"

They started off Valentine's Day decorating heart-shaped sugar cookies with my (I mean our) friend Jennifer.

Then we decided to dress up in Valentine's Day wear for a mini photo shoot:

Jonathan and I started a V-Day tradition once we were married that we have stuck with. Instead of going out to dinner he makes a special meal and I make a special dessert. I figured the girls wouldn't be interested in what he was making, so I fed them and had them ready for bed by the time Jonathan got home.

The girls were greeted by a Daddy bearing gifts. They were so excited to each get a flower and special Valentine's Day card from Daddy. I got flowers and a card too :-)

We put the girls to bed and Jonathan started cooking. I even managed to get Lily to bed. And, wouldn't you know it, Lily slept through dinner! No one had to eat and hold her at the same time! It was a special, quiet dinner where we were able to have a great conversation. Oh, and did I mention that dinner was awesome!? Jonathan made coffee crusted rib-eye, a recipe we found on Pinterest.

For dessert we had red velvet cake pops (another Pinterest find). They were very yummy.

All in all it was a great Valentine's Day-much better than last years' when we were hit with the stomach bug!

Three Months!

2012-02-13T21:05:00.004-05:00

Lily is three months old now. I was changing her this morning and thought, "Wait a second, what is today's date?" I realized she hit 3 months and had to change her for her onesie picture:

Lily loves to smile. She also loves to stick her hands in her mouth. She's reaching for her toys now and she tolerates tummy time better than before. We see more of Lily's beautiful blue eyes during the day as she is spending less time napping than when she was younger (I feel silly saying "when she was younger").

Nighttime sleep is not going so well. It seems that all three girls went through a phase where they just did not like sleeping in their crib. Abigail spent a lot of time sleeping in our bed. Sarah spent time sleeping in the swing. Right now Lily will start in the crib, but oftentimes will end up with us or in the swing. If I remember correctly, this issue got better once the girls went through "sleep training". So, anywhere between four and six months.

The girls still love Lily :-) Sarah is actually spending more time with her, which I'm happy about. She'll crouch down in front of Lily in her bouncy seat and say in a sweet, high voice "Hi Lily".

Lily is getting so big! I'm interested just how big she is, which we'll find out in a few days during her checkup. Happy three months Lily!

Photo Fridays 02.10.12

2012-02-10T07:00:00.001-05:00

I have been really bad about taking pictures lately. I did manage to snag two of Abigail and Lily though:

My Birthday!

2012-02-06T08:19:00.013-05:00

I turned 30-something at the end of January and thought I'd do a post of our weekend celebrations.

On Saturday we went to a local restaurant for lunch. By signing up for their emails we were given a free entree and dessert for my birthday. Who can pass up that kind of deal! The girls were great and the food was great. Here are some pics from my phone's camera (sorry for the poorer quality):

On Sunday we went over to my parents' for cake and ice cream. Jonathan made me a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. It was made from scratch using my awesome Christmas present from him-my Kitchenaid stand mixer. Abigail wanted to decorate it, which basically just involved putting 30-something candles on it :-)

It was a pretty low-key weekend, which is how I prefer it!

Sarah's New Hobby

2012-02-01T21:50:00.010-05:00

Sarah recently discovered how to dress herself. Yes sometimes she'll put her pants on backwards and sometimes I have to help her pull her shirt over her head, but for the most part she can do it by herself. Now that she's developed this new skill she's decided to do it multiple times a day.

Here's what she wore today, as recorded by my phone's camera:

Outfit 1: The Inside-Out Bathing Suit

Outfit 2: Big Sister's Jammies

Outfit 3: Lunch Attire

Outfit 4: Afternoon Casual Wear

Outfit 5: Big Sister's Dress (the dress big sister wore earlier in the day)

Outfit 6: Bedtime Jammies

It can get frustrating having to pick up discarded pieces of clothing as the day goes on, but my Mom said it best, "At least she has clothes on."

What's Cooking: Creamy Chicken Taquitos

2012-01-22T18:47:00.007-05:00

Ever heard of Pinterest? I've mentioned it a few times and really like the site. There are so many unique craft ideas and recipes I would never think to google. Last night I decided to look at recently pinned recipes and saw this one for Creamy Chicken Taquitos. I'm not a big pinner, and only try to pin things I am likely to try out. This recipe was something I had to try out as soon as possible.

Modifications/Substitutions: I didn't use cumin or green onions. Instead of fresh cilantro, I used dried oregano leaves.

Ease: This was so easy to make. I especially liked the fact that these were baked, rather than fried. The hardest part about making the meal was dealing with my two older girls who kept coming into the kitchen. This recipe gets 4.5 stars for ease.

Affordability: This recipe was pretty affordable. Like always the chicken was on sale. Other ingredients were affordable as well - 4.5 stars.

Taste: Jonathan and I loved these. They made for a perfect treat to eat while watching football. We gave it 5 stars for taste.

Family-Friendly: One reason I wanted to try this recipe was because I was convinced that the girls would love it and eat it up. I was wrong. We really had to push them to eat theirs for some reason, and they didn't finish. Abigail told me she thought it was too spicy. Maybe I would use some cheese other than pepper jack. For our girls though and the way I made them, I'm afraid this recipe will only get 2 stars.

Photo Fridays 01.20.12

2012-01-20T07:00:00.000-05:00

I cannot believe it is Friday already and that a whole week has gone by since I've made a post.

Lily has been smiling a lot lately, but now I have actual digital evidence. She's pretty generous with her smiles, but gives most of them to her big sister Abigail. Quite often Lily will smile at Abigail, who then bends over laughing like it's the funnies thing ever. Then Lily will smile again and Abigail laughs even harder. So here she is, our smiling Lily:

Photo Fridays 01.13.12

2012-01-13T08:56:00.003-05:00

Lily is now two months old. I feel like it should be more like three months, because the past few weeks haven't flown by like I expected them to.

Lily gives us lots of smiles. She'll smile just about every time Abigail shows up. She gives me her biggest smiles in the middle of the night when she should be sleeping.

She's also cooing now. I love some of the sounds that come out of her cute little mouth. She likes to talk sometimes in the middle of the night too-when she should be sleeping :-)

Here's our growing baby, now an ancient two months old:

Kind of, but not Really

2012-01-11T11:05:00.008-05:00

Today has been a laid back day so far. I decided to have a little fun with Abigail's hair and gave her pigtails since it has been a while.

So Sarah wouldn't feel left out I thought I would attempt to give her pigtails as well. The hair in the back of her hair is growing nicely. The hair on the top though? Not so much. I managed two pigtails in the back, then Abigail suggested I put one on top. So, I can kind of put Sarah's hair up, but not really.

It's funny because when I was finally able to put Abigail's hair up I had to leave her hair in the back down because it wasn't long enough. I guess Sarah just wants to be different.

Our LIttle Gymnast

2012-01-09T07:00:00.001-05:00

The other day there was a gymnast being interviewed on TV. I got the girls attention to watch footage of the gymnast doing her floor exercise and they were pretty impressed. The next thing I know, Sarah is doing her own gymnastics. Last night I got her to perform on camera so I could share with you all:

Bedtime Routine

2012-01-07T23:42:00.007-05:00

We've had a pretty solid, consistent bedtime routine since Abigail went to sleep on her own. Over time we've tweaked it here and there. When Abigail started sleeping in a big girl bed it became apparent that we needed to lay down some ground rules. We reminded Abigail of the rules as part of our bedtime routine. It got to the point where she was able to recite them:

Cup on shelf (so we wouldn't have to search for it)
Stay in bed
Keep your jammies on (yes, we had to make this a rule)
Go to sleep
We love you (not really a rule, but something fun to say after all the rules)

Over time we didn't have to remind her anymore because she was actually following the rules. Well, now that Sarah has been in her big girl bed, we've found that the rules need to come back. The big rules she's challenging are numbers 2 and 3.

Which brings me to the point of this post. Tonight I went in to check on the girls and found that Sarah broke rule #2, but was quiet enough so we weren't aware of her offense until she obeyed rule #4. I didn't find her in her bed, but soon spotted her. I was reminded of a scene from The Wizard of Oz (when Dorothy discovers that her house ended up on the Wicked Witch of the East).

Sarah got out of bed and went into the little castle tent we bought the girls recently. She fell asleep on one of their Build-a-Bear beds. So funny and cute.

Going from Two to Three? Piece of Cake!

2012-01-05T13:35:00.011-05:00

Some people might tell you that going from zero to one child is the hardest transition to handle.

After that going from one kid to two kids isn't that bad.

Going from two kids to three is much easier. I had a hard time thinking this was possible, but I get it now.Sure, we have one more mouth to feed, one more wardrobe to wash, one more body to clean, etc. Plus it takes us much longer to get out of the house. And, we haven't reached this point yet, but soon Lily will be making a mess of the place with her toys like her older sisters do (sometimes I wonder why I even clean in the first place). But, I've found going from two girls to three hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be. Here's why:

I know what to expect now. I'm sure Lily is winding up her curve-ball pitch, but for the most part nothing has come as a surprise to me and Jonathan yet.

I've loosened up a bit. I know a lot of parents do this with each subsequent child. With the first a couple may take weeks before making their first outing, then maybe a few days with their second. With Lily, we went straight to my parents' from the hospital (sure we had to get the girls, but we didn't wait much longer before heading out of the house). Also, with Lily throwing up once a day (or even more sometimes), I don't freak out as much. Sarah went through the same thing (see bullet above) and I don't worry about her getting what she needs because she is gaining weight and produces plenty of output. I can still be a bit uptight when it comes to caring for the girls (especially when we aren't at home), but I think I'm much better.

Two out of three still nap. Sarah will give me a nice 1-2 hour afternoon nap while Lily naps maybe 3-6 hours throughout the day. So, I really don't spend much of my day taking care of the needs of three girls at once. I know this will change, but as Lily gets older she won't be quite as needy (she likes to spend a lot of time in our arms when she's awake).

The older ones play independently. I spent a lot of this morning tending to Lily because of feeding, spitting up, changing, and feeding some more. Abigail and Sarah spent most of that time in their room playing. It was hard doing this for Sarah when Abigail was the only other one. Abigail would get into trouble because there was no one to play with (see Exhibit A, Exhibit B, and Exhibit C).

So by no means am I saying having three girls under the age of 3 1/2 is easy, I'm just saying it isn't as crazy and overwhelming as I thought it would be.

Memories

2012-01-04T06:00:00.001-05:00

My Mom has been really good about checking off items from her Day Zero list. Actually, she has three lists going right now. One of her newer items is to create a memory jar. Over the year, you can write down different experiences. On New Year's Eve you read over all of your memories from the year. I like this idea because you can be reminded of things that happened that you may not have taken photos of, or blogged about, or updated your Facebook status for. It turns out I had four Yankee Candles that were burned completely and I had been trying to think of things to do with them. Mom and I used two of them to collect our memories for 2012.

Here's a picture I took with my phone, followed by a regular picture so you can see it a bit better:

Oh, and a handy hint: to get the remaining wax out of your jar, place the jar in your freezer for 10 minutes or so. The wax shrinks up a bit and is easily removed from the bottom of your jar. I used kitchen scissors to break up the wax a bit more so it could fall right out of the jar.

Hopefully we can keep up with this so we have plenty of memories to read on New Year's Eve!

Why Hello, 2012!

2012-01-01T19:58:00.010-05:00

Jonathan and I celebrated New Year's Eve the same way we did last year. We fed the girls and put the girls to bed (Lily even slept too). Then we had a cozy, quiet, Chinese food dinner and watched movies before watching the ball drop.

After dinner I used my new stand mixer to make a recipe I found on Pinterest for Overnight Monkey Bread. It was so nice to have a machine do the kneading for me! I liked the idea of having breakfast mostly taken care of the night before. It turned out really yummy! The girls had their fill. It isn't exactly the breakfast most people would eat to kick off the New Year, but we did have fruit with it too, so that should balance things out a bit.

The girls wore their matching dresses that Grandma and Papa Kapaldo got them for Christmas. I didn't get it in the picture, but they came with adorable tights too.

Here's an outtake:

Here's Lily doing something we didn't see a lot of on the first day of 2012: sleeping!

I've made New Year's resolutions in the past, but not in recent years. As I've mentioned before, I'm really good at starting things and not always finishing them. I end up feeling pretty defeated in the end. Sure, I have goals I want to achieve and areas of personal growth I want to experience, but I don't need the added pressure of resolutions. Instead, I'm going to do what our Pastor suggested today in his first sermon of the year: ask God for something big in 2012-something only God could do. And then go on living life in a way that shows I believe God will answer. I encourage you to do the same. I'm excited to see what happens!

Christmas Day

2011-12-30T19:10:00.002-05:00

I figured we'd get to an early start on Christmas morning, but the girls were so wiped out from the day before. Abigail woke up at 6:40 and we woke up Sarah shortly after. The girls were excited to see their goodies.

Jonathan gave me an awesome stand mixer. It's one of those things I've always wanted but didn't need. Now that I have one I'll use it every chance I get.

We got to church a bit late and then headed to Nonna and Papa's for more Christmas festivities. Our girls got plenty of new toys to play with. Abigail was especially excited about her roller skates.

The girls also got cute animals from Auntie Laura and Uncle Nick. They each came with books that gave responses when you read certain phrases.

Oh, and remember the cross-stitch pattern I gave my Mom two years ago? I finally finished it.

Here's Grandpa holding a content Lily:

Auntie Cathy got the girls matching jammies. We made several attempts at getting a decent picture of the girls wearing them.

We had a great weekend celebrating Christmas with our little family and our extended family. It's been fun seeing Abigail understand a bit more about why we celebrate Christmas when we lit our advent candles. Sarah doesn't quite get it, but she does know about baby Jesus. I'm looking forward to celebrating again next year when all three girls are older

Christmas Eve

2011-12-29T07:00:00.000-05:00

We had a pretty busy Christmas Eve. I had Jonathan go do some last minute shopping while I took the girls to my Grandparents' where many family members were gathering for a pre-Christmas visit. There were tons of people and tons of food. And, as with every family gathering, there was lots of laughter and talking. After Jonathan finished shopping he met up with us and visited for a bit.

After visiting we quickly went home for dinner, got the girls dressed up, and then headed to church for our Christmas Eve candlelight service. Abigail was excited because (1) it was a candlelight service and (2) she got to wear her Christmas dress.

The girls were hard to occupy during the service. They were very focused, however, when it came to lighting our candle. Normally our Pastor would light his candle up front and then the flame would be "passed around" until everyone's candle was lit. This year though, each family was invited to come up and light their candles.

Funny story...

We decided to go up with all three girls and two candles. I explained to Abigail as we walked up that I would light our candle. Jonathan had Sarah and Lily and a candle he would light. Abigail gave me no problems, but as soon as Sarah saw the second candle lit she yelled "my candle, my candle!" So Jonathan did what any parent would do, he handed her the candle! I couldn't believe it! So I'm freaking out as we walk back to our seats. I managed to keep the girls still as they each held a candle, making sure to keep the flame far away from their hair or the seats in front of us. Then Sarah thought it would be fun to blow her candle out. Then she proceeded to light it back up using Abigail's flame. After this both girls would giggle and Sarah would blow the candle out and do it all over again. All this happened as the congregation sang SILENT night (and at this point it was voices only, no instruments). At this point I decided the best thing to do was blow Abigail's candle out so the disruption would stop.

We got the girls settled in bed and then got ready for Christmas morning. I was always excited anticipating Christmas morning as a little girl, but I was even more excited as a Mom looking forward to the girls experiencing Christmas morning.

Our big "Santa" gift was an easel from IKEA. It is huge and only cost us $15. The girls have already made a number of works of art, so I think it was a good purchase.

Oh, and this isn't from Christmas Eve, but it is our family photo we used for Christmas cards this year. The girls were really good about waiting for the timer to go off before snapping our picture:

Keeping Me Sane

2011-12-28T07:00:00.002-05:00

If I had to name one household appliance that I could not live without, it would probably be my vacuum cleaner (coffee maker would come in close second). With the exception of our bathroom and kitchen, our apartment has wall-to-wall carpeting. Oh, and did I mention that we have a dining room? That has carpet too. We eat in the dining room. So, I pretty much don't need to explain why I could not live without my vacuum cleaner.

We use our vacuum probably every other day. Though, after Lily arrived it has been harder to vacuum as often as we would like. The carpet looked pretty desperate last Monday, so I went right to it. The only problem was that it wasn't sucking up anything. I kept going over the mess, but specks were just being tossed around. I looked underneath the machine and saw no obvious signs of blockage. I decided to give up and call it a day.

On Tuesday the carpet was only getting worse, so I decided to get to the bottom of our problem. This time I took the vacuum apart. I quickly discovered what the problem was.

Who knows how long most of that junk was stuck in there! I was so excited by my discovery and quickly put the vacuum back together to get going on our messy carpet. I turned the cleaner on and, to my dismay, the green light indicating that the machine was working properly was not on. It turns out you have to put the vacuum cleaner together "just so" for it to work (I remember my mom and I having this problem before). I tried and tried again. Then I gave up and called it a day.

Yikes, three days have passed. I must vacuum this carpet! Vacuuming has turned out to be quite therapeutic for me. I love getting a fresh start during the week with a newly vacuumed carpet. I decided to search the internet for clues. I found instructions on replacing the vacuums belt. That, paired with using my brain, led to an actual successful result. I was elated!

I started with the girls' room. This vacuum cleaner was like new again! I was going to town. Then, all of a sudden, I noticed a bouncing spool of thread. The vacuum managed to grab at the loose end of the thread and was unwinding the spool (and simultaneously winding the thread around the brush of the vacuum). By the time I shut the machine off the thread was gone. Thankfully I was able to resolve this problem pretty easily. Phew!

Another great thing about our vacuum is that, while it gets the older girls wired up (they run around and give their girly-est screams), it instantly calms a fussy Lily. I'm glad I have it back in working order.

One Month

2011-12-20T04:00:00.001-05:00

Lily hit the one month mark last week. Today was her one month check up. I ended up taking all three girls to her appointment and it went surprisingly well! No one ran off and no one acted up.

Lily is a whopping 10 pounds, 6 ounces, so I'd say she's doing just fine considering her "vomiting" issues. Because she isn't fussy and because it generally doesn't happen more than once a day (and because of her weight gain) the Doctor and I agreed to wait a bit before calling it reflux.

Lily has had a good stretch of sleep (four hours) pretty much only once since we took her home from the hospital. At night she'll sleep 2, 2.5, or maybe 3 hour stretches. This wouldn't be a big deal except for the times when she doesn't go back to sleep right away. Oh well, some day she'll give us a little more sleep. I'm hoping that sometime soon we can start developing a schedule.

Want a Little Cookie with Your Sugar?

2011-12-19T05:00:00.003-05:00

I made four dozen sugar cookies last week. Half we brought to our homeschool co-op for decorating and the other half I took to Nonna and Papa's so the girls could decorate them with their cousin Bridget.

Abigail started off nice and neat icing cookies at Nonna's house. We didn't use piping bags, so instead used our fingers. Towards the end though, Abigail became her own assembly line, dipping her fingers in blue icing, then the green, then the pink, before applying it to her cookie. Then she insisted on using every color sprinkle we had to make her cookies "colorful". She ended up putting a significant amount of each color on each cookie.

Sarah decorated maybe three cookies total. Then she ate each of them. Oh, and she made a mess. But she had fun!

Bridget was given a cookie, which she ate. Then she managed to reach all of the sprinkles Abigail finished using because Abigail always put them in Bridget's reach. Then Bridget "decorated" the table with the sprinkles if we weren't able to intercept the sprinkle containers in time. She made a mess too, but I think she also had fun. It was cute to hear her repeat Nonna, especially when Nonna would hand Abigail sprinkles and say "Here you go". Bridget would immediately repeat Nonna with her own "Here you go".

Check out Bridget reaching:

Maybe we should go ahead and make this another Christmas tradition.

Who Do You Think She Looks Like?

2011-12-13T16:19:00.005-05:00

We've got this question a lot-whether it be about Lily or the older girls. There are times when I see each of us in her. What do you think?

Lily at one month:

Abigail at one month:
Sarah at one month:

When Abigail answers the question, she hits the nail on the head, "She looks like Lily!"

Sugar, Sugar, and More Sugar

2011-12-12T10:57:00.011-05:00

After church yesterday we headed over to Nonna's to build and decorate a nut-free gingerbread house. Pre-baked gingerbread house kits are basically a no-no because they are manufactured in places that process the dreaded tree nut. So, thank you to Nonna for baking our own house and for buying Abigail-friendly candy!

The girls had fun using their fingers to apply super-sweet icing to the gingerbread house. It wasn't long before Sarah skipped applying the icing to the house and instead put it straight into her mouth.

The girls seemed pretty wired not long after the house was complete. We headed back to GENESIS (our church) for their annual Christmas party. All of the refreshments (with the exception of a few bowls of pretzels) were sweets. Thankfully our sugar-loaded girls went to bed pretty easily once we got home. I wonder how long our gingerbread house will last before the girls start to dismantle it. So far, so good.

Photo Fridays 12.09.11

2011-12-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

Life with Lily

2011-12-08T10:12:00.005-05:00

Lily will be four weeks old on Sunday. Life has been interesting having three girls under 3 1/2, but it has been doable.

I've managed to go out a few times with all three girls while Jonathan is at work. We went to Abigail's homeschool co-op last Friday and then visited with Nonna afterward. I'm pretty sure I'll be taking the girls to Nonna's just about every day she has off (I could use all the adult interaction I can get-plus she likes to hold Lily :-) Getting the girls in the van for an outing is pretty easy, getting the girls back in the apartment is another story. Yesterday afternoon all three girls fell asleep on the way home from Nonna's. I grabbed the older girls one-by-one and set them on the bottom step of our stairwell, then I grabbed Lily. After that I had to take each of them one-by-one up the stairs into our apartment (they were all a bit grumpy and not willing to climb the stairs themselves). Normally I'm all for the girls napping in the car, but not if they are unwilling to help me out when it comes to getting in the apartment!

Lily likes to sleep a lot. Let me be more specific - Lily likes to sleep a lot during the day. The past three nights we've had a good 1 hour to 2 hours of wide-awake time for one reason or another. I'm not sure if she's confusing day and night still, or if she's sleeping too much during the day. But I've also heard the phrase "sleep begets sleep" so I am not really willing to force her to be awake during the day.

Lily's other hobby seems to be spewing her meals all over me. And, can you believe it, she manages to soak me and nearby furniture/carpeting and get barely a drop on her. I'm not ready to call it reflux yet, though it does tend to happen at least once a day. Sarah had the same problem, but took meds for reflux. Regardless, it is very discouraging and very frustrating to have a dozy little lady nice and full and ready for sleep when all of a sudden she'll burb and barf all at once. Please pray for us.

Trimming the Tree

2011-12-05T07:00:00.000-05:00

After our Thanksgiving guests left we decided to put up our Christmas tree. The girls were very excited to put ornaments up. They pretty much put all of the ornaments on the tree, but I later re-arranged them a bit because pretty much all of the ornaments ended up around the middle part of the tree.

Our tree-topper didn't quite fit the 4-foot tree we're borrowing from Nonna and Papa (plus, the lights weren't working). So, we ended up getting a smaller, simpler star. Abigail fell in love with this sparkly pink star because (as she'll tell you multiple times a day) pink is her favorite color. We also added candy canes (we'll see how long those last).

The Life of the Party

2011-12-03T19:21:00.006-05:00

I love each of my daughters equally. I just thought I'd share a bit about Sarah. Sarah is the life of our little party. At the dinner table she is often the source of entertainment. She seems to like to get a laugh out of the whole family-especially Mommy and Abigail.

Sarah's been "dressing" herself lately. Sometimes she'll try on Build a Bear shoes (which are a tad on the small side). Other times she'll put on a hat. A few days ago she decided to be a super-hero. I have a few nursing covers which Abigail (and later Sarah) started using as capes. Here is Sarah in her get-up. She'll go around the room saying "Super Ada!" (which is Super Abigail in Sarah's language). I try to get her to say "Super Sarah!" but she insists on saying what Abigail says when she runs around with the cape.

Another day this week she was all dressed and ready for the day, but then decided to accessorize with another shirt. She came to us and did a nice pose to show off her completed outfit.

I love Sarah's facial expressions. I also love how she's randomly sings songs. Another cute thing she's been doing is changing her baby doll's diapers. She has mastered her technique and even will grab both her doll's legs with one hand like we do with Lily (ok, you have to see her do this to appreciate its cuteness). She's just an all-around cutie!

Photo Fridays 12.02.11

2011-12-02T08:53:00.003-05:00

Here's a Christmas portrait sneak peek. The girls and I took a few practice shots using the camera timer before Jonathan and Lily joined in.

3:1

2011-12-01T19:00:00.000-05:00

Today was Jonathan's first day back at work. I was sort of dreading this day, because having Jonathan around was such a huge help! He didn't think he was that big of a help, but he couldn't be more wrong. Most of his help involved watching Lily so I could tend to chores, etc (which is something I really wanted to take care of).

The night before Jonathan's day back was a bit stressful. Lily decided to stay wide awake from 11:15 or so until about 1:00. Once she was settled in bed I figured I was good until 4:00 or so. I was wrong-she got up at 3:00 (and this was after I had to get up to calm Sarah down when she woke up sometime between 1:00 and 4:00). After I fed Lily what I thought was a pretty substantial meal I struggled to help her get back to sleep. I was desperate and had Jonathan help me out around 4:00. He was able to get her back to sleep around 5:00.

Our restless sleep made for an easier day with Daddy away though, because Lily had a lot of sleep to make up for. Most of the day I dealt with an actual 2:1 and even 1:1 Little One to Mommy ratio because of naps. I was able to do a little cleaning and Abigail and I even fit in a preschool lesson. The only thing I didn't manage to do was take a shower (I'll have to figure that one out).

We made it! We survived in one piece! With God's help I think we'll be able to do this.

Thanksgiving

2011-11-26T07:00:00.000-05:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Jonathan and I got up bright and early (he with the girls, and me shortly after). Then we got right to breakfast and dinner preparations. Breakfast was finished, the coffee was brewed, turkey was in the oven, and Nonna and Papa arrived-all before Lily woke up at 8:45.
We were also joined by Uncle James and Auntie Dawn from New Jersey and Auntie Laura, Uncle Nick and Bridget.
Lily took a nice 3-hour nap while the ladies finished making dinner and while all of us feasted on turkey and sides. We were even able to clean up a bit before dessert.

The girls didn't eat as much as we would have liked. They were very excited to have so many people over though.
After dessert we attempted a family portrait, followed by a picture of Nonna and her four granddaughters. Let's just say I have a lot of "takes" for each picture.

Finally, since James and Dawn made the trip, they decided to bring a few Christmas gifts along with them. One of my family's traditions is to draw names and make a gift for that person rather than buy one. Since Jonathan and Dawn joined our family I think I can safely say that we all look forward to when they draw our names (they both have experience in various fine arts). I lucked out this year-Dawn drew my name. Check out what she made for me:

We had a version of a "dog house" growing up, so I really got a kick out of the one Dawn made for our family. She had great attention to detail ("Jonathan" is wearing glasses and "Abigail's" bow and collar is pink-her favorite color).

We had such a great Thanksgiving and hope you did as well!

Photo Fridays 11.25.11

2011-11-25T07:00:00.001-05:00

Jonathan and I have been taking turns letting each other sleep in with Lily while the other hangs out with our two early risers. When I'm sleeping in Jonathan is really good about keeping the girls out of our room. When I'm in charge of the girls, on the other hand, they at some point end up in our room.

Jonathan took care of Sarah one morning by letting her play with his iPad while he and Lily slept a little more.

Meet and Greet

2011-11-23T08:00:00.001-05:00

Lily has met lots of family and friends during her first week of life. Auntie Laura, Uncle Nick, Cousin Bridget, and Papa visited Lily in the hospital. While they got to see her again along with Nonna, Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa when we picked the girls up on our way home from the hospital.

Lily is Here!

2011-11-22T16:52:00.000-05:00

So, Lily's due date (11/17) has come and gone. I haven't posted in a while, which may indicate that Lily has made her arrival.

She's been with us for a bit over a week now and we love her to pieces. We are still getting used to taking care of three little ones and, as of December 1 I'll have to get used to taking care of the three girls all over again because Jonathan will head back to work.

Lily came a few days before her due date, but the timing was actually perfect. My Mom and sister had Sunday off, so they were able to take care of Abigail and Sarah. My sister also watched the girls so Jonathan could pick me and Lily up from the hospital a few days later.

Here are a two fun facts we've learned over the past week or so:

Sixth Sense - I should have figured this out with Abigail or Sarah, but newborns have a sixth sense that weakens as they get older. This sense enables them to know the exact moment your head hits the pillow. They also know the moment you are about to nod off.

How Many? - If any of you were wondering "How many Kapaldo's does it take to change a diaper?" the answer is at least three (during the day anyway). The girls are really good about gathering supplies to help change Lily.

We'll be posting more in the coming days. Stay tuned!

"Rainy Day" Fun

2011-11-09T10:31:00.007-05:00

Our area has experienced a bit of an Indian Summer these past few days. We've had highs in the mid to upper 60's. I think today we'll be back in the mid-60's. This makes for perfect outdoor fun weather. However, I am just not up to going out with the girls on my own, being a week and a day from my due date and everything. Plus I may have a cold coming on.

So, with no plans for the day, we had to think on our toes. Here's a summary of the fun and random "rainy day" activities we participated in:

1) Build a spaceship and outfit it will random toys, swim floaties, and fruit snacks.

2) Build a robot out of cardboard and call her "Abigail Robot". Abigail then took her new friend all over the apartment saying "Abigail Robot" in her perfect robot voice.

3) Watch Cinderella, attempt french braids, and have a picnic on the living room floor for lunch.

4) Dress Abigail Robot.

And so on...

Photo Fridays 11.04.11

2011-11-04T20:04:00.005-04:00

This afternoon the girls baked cookies with Nonna. Sarah was too cute when I told her to roll her dough. Instead of rolling it into a ball shape with her hands she would take the dough in one hand and roll it onto the cookie sheet as if it were a ball.

Belly Shots: 38 Weeks

2011-11-03T07:48:00.004-04:00

Get this baby out of me!

Just kidding.

Well, kind of.

Being 38 weeks pregnant is not easy when you have two energetic girls under the age of 3 1/2. But, other people have done this before, so I will survive! At the end of the day I am just so beat though-counting down the minutes until Jonathan calls to let me know he is on his way home and freaking out if he is only a few minutes late.

Night time is definitely not fun. In the "olden days" if I were to wake up at 12:30, 2:30, or 3:30 in the morning I would look at my clock and think, "Yes! I still have x number of hours to sleep!" Now I look at the clock and think, "Ugh, it's only x:xx, I have to make it through x more hours tonight." Sleep does not come easy at night, but I could easily fall asleep in the afternoon.

I am ready.

Lily is pretty patient though, I think she'll be arriving pretty close to her due date. Only 14ish days to go!!!

Snow-tober

2011-10-30T13:57:00.012-04:00

We managed to squeeze a few mild days into fall, but fall is here to stay. Though, we did get a peek of winter this week. We had a dusting of snow Thursday night while a good four inches fell last night.

Abigail and Sarah woke up early enough to spend a while playing in the snow before breakfast and church. They had fun during their sneak preview of winter.

One of the first things Abigail did was make a few snow angels.

Sarah enjoyed grabbing at the snow and tossing it into the air. Can you believe that this jacket/pants combo is size 12-18 months!? It looks like we'll get two full seasons of use for Sarah before Lily will have a turn.

Daddy showing Abigail how to make snowballs.

The girls.

First snowman of the season.

Photo Fridays 10.28.11

2011-10-28T19:54:00.003-04:00

It's still Friday, so I thought I'd share a few fun pictures from this week. Lily's car seat came in a nice big box, which made for a good deal of fun for the girls...

Belly Shots: 37 Weeks

2011-10-27T17:32:00.002-04:00

It has been a rough week this week! I have very little energy, very little motivation, and very little patience. I feel like I am climbing an uphill battle when it comes to keeping up with house chores. I'll get one room clean, then my little munchkins undo my work. I often find myself saying to Jonathan when he gets home, "The living room WAS clean today, I promise."

I would really like the apartment to be in half way decent shape before I have to go to the hospital when I have Lily. The last thing I want to see when the two of us come home is a mess. I think I need to face reality though.

Other than the state of our house, we are all set for our girl's arrival. Though, we do need to figure out logistics when it comes to having the girls looked after when things start to happen.

I know I'll be very tired when Lily comes. But a big part of me (namely, my belly) is ready for her to be born. I'll still be exhausted, but at least I should be more mobile.

Ready when you are Lily!

Virtual Baby Shower

2011-10-24T09:37:00.010-04:00

All week long I had been looking forward to going to my cousin's surprise baby shower kid-free. I let Abigail know I was not heading home with her after church because I was going to the shower and then she gave me a puppy dog look and told me she wanted to go too. I couldn't resist, so the two of us went together.

My Aunt and cousin threw the shower to celebrate the upcoming arrival of a little girl, so they went all out on girly stuff.

Here is Abigail decked out in a feather boa and bright pink nail polish (courtesy of Auntie Laura).

This picture reminds me of the last time she wore a boa.

The Mommy-to-Be is actually a resident of North Carolina, with most of her family living here and out west. So, with the help of a TV and a few Apple products my cousins were able to make it a virtual shower. All of the presents were shipped to NC, where my cousin David intercepted them and wrapped them all. My Aunt went all out and baked cookies, packed shower games (and more feather boas), and sent everything down so my cousin would be well-equipped to throw the same shower simultaneously in NC for his wife.

Grandma saying "hi" to the Daddy-to-Be

I wish I had more pictures, but my lens stopped working mid-shower. It was a blast-my Aunt certainly knows how to throw a party!

Photo Fridays 10.21.11

2011-10-21T07:00:00.000-04:00

We made caramel apples yesterday afternoon. I got things started while Jonathan finished things up with the girls when I went out for my doctor's appointment.

Belly Shots: 36 Weeks

2011-10-20T23:00:00.000-04:00

We are in the home stretch now. We're down 36 weeks with 4 weeks to go. You know you're close to having another baby when your Doctor's appointments go from every four weeks or so to every two weeks and then every week (which is where we are now).

So, are we ready? Well, if the baby needs changing we have the changing table all set (though we still need to pick up diapers). If she needs to sleep, no problem! Sarah is in the bottom bunk so the crib has been vacated. If Lily needs to be lulled in the swing we've got that covered too.

There was just one little thing we still needed to do-buy a car seat! My friend Jennifer (who Abigail insists is not my friend, but hers) came over tonight so Jonathan and I could go out on a date. We took advantage and went out to buy Lily her car seat. Now we can take her home from the hospital! We also went to the Cheesecake Factory for dessert, so our date was fun and productive.

Here's a picture Jennifer took of us before we headed out:

Pumpkins!

2011-10-17T08:00:00.004-04:00

It rained pretty much all day on Friday as we went to school and got ready for Sarah's party. So we were happy to see blue skies and sun on Saturday morning. After Papa K, Grandma, and Jonathan put the bunk beds together we gave the girls a snack and then headed north to go pumpkin picking.

Soon after hitting the highway both girls were fast asleep in the van. As we got closer and closer to Crescent Farms we saw more and more grey clouds. Then we saw sprinkles. Then we had to use our wipers. Once we pulled into the farm's parking lot the rain really came down. I thought we could leave while the girls were sleeping but then they both woke up and saw the pumpkins.

The rain slowed enough for us to brave the cold, wind, and light rain so we could run up a muddy patch, quickly grab pumpkins, and then run down the muddy patch. I think the girls had fun even though the conditions were far from favorable.

One of the things I wanted to do when we grabbed pumpkins was to get a picture of me, Jonathan, and Lily like one I saw my photographer friend, Krista, take. I thought it was such a cute idea-lucky for me Lily is due a little after pumpkin season, so it made for a fun picture (thanks, Mom, for taking it!).

On Sunday afternoon we did some carving. Last year Sarah was just a spectator-this year she got to participate. Boy did she love helping. She wasn't phased at all by the slimy seeds and pretty much stuck her whole arm down her pumpkin. She made a funny pumpkin face with Daddy while I made a cat pumpkin with Abigail.

I'm looking forward to snacking on toasted pumpkin seeds shortly!

Big Girls!

2011-10-16T09:00:00.000-04:00

Grandma and Papa K drove up to spend the weekend with us as we celebrated Sarah's second birthday. They came bearing gifts-a beautiful set of bunk beds!

Now that Sarah is two and Lily is due so soon we decided we were ready to get Sarah transitioned to a big girl bed. She was showing signs of being ready too.

Grandma and Papa did such a great job refinishing the sturdy set of beads, complete with custom-made pink bed rails and a sky blue board with pink slats (so Sarah has something pretty to look at from the bottom bunk).

The girls were so excited to see their new set up. Abigail was sure to let us know ALL DAY LONG that she was to sleep in the top bunk and Sarah's was the bottom. Also, I think their bedroom has fast become Abigail's favorite.

Thank you Grandma and Papa K for the bunk beds! And thank you Nonna for the spreads and afghans!

Sarah is Two!

2011-10-15T20:00:00.000-04:00

I just cannot believe that Sarah is two. There is so much to love about our little Sarah. I love to see her personality continue to develop.

I love how Sarah is so entertaining at the dinner table. Whether she starts singing a tune, or makes faces to get us to laugh, she has me smiling or laughing at every dinner.
I love how she finishes a lot of her sentences with the name of the person she is addressing. Like "tank yoo, Dada" or "your turn, Ada" (Ada is how she says Abigail).
I love how she loves to dance with her dolls and her Daddy. Both of the girls have taken to dancing with Jonathan when our Friday night movie ends and the end credits play with fun music. If you catch her dancing, you should tell her to shake her tail feather-it is so cute!
I also love how she tries to sing along with people and even sings on her own. I caught her the other day with her Little People playset. She set up the prince and princess at their table, complete with a plastic candelabra. She sang a short version of "Happy Birthday" and blew the candle out.
I love how she gets so excited about the big and little things. When we went to look at pumpkins while apple picking she raised both of her hands and jumped up and down because she was just so excited. She also gets excited when she sees some of her favorite people and runs to them for a good hug. This is pretty remarkable because she used to be terribly shy.

These are just a few things that we love about our sweet little two year old. Happy Birthday Sarah! We look forward to seeing what the future holds for you!

Here are a few pictures from Sarah's birthday celebration.

We made a Care Bear cake (though, Abigail will tell you she made it):

Here's Sarah talking to Papa M on the phone:

Cake and presents!

Fun with Scissors

2011-10-13T11:24:00.007-04:00

Abigail has been using kid-friendly scissors on and off for about a year now. For the most part she likes cutting paper into confetti-sized pieces. It's a bit messy, but it keeps her occupied when I need to do a chore of some sort. She also uses her scissors for some of her homeschool activities and is getting quite proficient at using them.

Sometimes Sarah gets a hold of Abigail's scissors and goes straight for our countdown chain. I've had to repair that silly thing quite a few times now. I guess Sarah thinks she can speed up the waiting process by cutting the chain to pieces!

This brings me to our amusing story. Yesterday I was in the middle of cooking dinner and checking things out online (I have to be honest with you all). I could hear the sound of scissors scissor-ing in the other room. I immediately called out for Sarah to stop cutting the chain. It was then when I saw Abigail in my doorway, scissors in hand, up in her hair! Her hair that she took almost two years to grow enough for pigtails!

I ran straight for her and the scissors and tried to assess the damage. She ended up cutting a decent amount of hair, though not to the point where the untrained eye would notice it. She did this one handed, so she ended up "thinning" her hair out rather than chopping it off. Needless to say, this made for an interesting conversation with Daddy while he was at work - and it is another thing we can laugh about now that it's over.

The hair:

The "damage" (not a great angle, she cut mostly from the right side):

The spectator:

Apple Picking!

2011-10-10T07:00:00.000-04:00

The past few weekends were pretty rainy and miserable, so we ended up postponing our annual apple picking adventure to this weekend. It ended up working out perfectly as the weather this weekend has been unseasonably warm with highs reaching the upper 70's/lower 80's.

We went back to Smolak Farms, where they celebrated 30 years in business this weekend. We got there earlier than normal, which I am glad for. As we finished up picking our apples the crowds came rolling in.

The girls enjoyed picking lots and lots of apples. We ended up with 73 total. I'm looking forward to making pie, apple crisp, maybe some apple sauce, and a few caramel apples wouldn't hurt either.

Belly Shots: 34 Weeks

2011-10-06T20:00:00.000-04:00

Six weeks left! And I am feeling it. Tonight got pretty chilly and I had to put socks on (gasp). That was no easy task.

Things are getting a bit uncomfortable, but we're hanging in there. I'm able to keep up with the girls at home, but when we're out it is a different story. Last week we were shopping with Nonna and the girls were not contained in carts. Abigail decided to run off, but soon came back when I called her. Sarah, on the other hand, ran off but chose to not listen to me. I had the hardest time running after her and her speedy little legs!

Sleep is hard to come by also. I just don't get why super pregnant women have a hard time sleeping. I don't need practice waking up during the night, believe me.

There's our little update! Before we know it Lily will be here. Just a month and a half to go!

Making Your Home a Haven - Fall Challenge

2011-10-05T08:00:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine introduced me to the blog Women Living Well. I've been following it for a while and thought I should join in on their Fall Challenge on making your home a haven. This challenge has a task for each week in October that deal with praying for peace in your home, de-cluttering, and spending quality time with your family. I'll be honest, life in our home can be crazy at times. With a baby on the way and two busy little ones things have gotten crazy with keeping up on chores (or attempting to), coming up with creative meals (that my kids will eat), homeschooling Abigail, and getting ready for Lily. I'm looking forward to taking steps to hopefully making our home more peaceful. I invite you to check out this fall challenge and join in!

The first week's challenge is to light a large candle every day. Every time the candle flicker catches your eye, pray for peace in your home. I've been doing this since only Monday and am already noticing a difference. The candle not only reminds me to pray for peace, but it also helps me to remember how I can be an "instrument" of peace, especially as it relates to how I react to undesirable behavior or happenings with the girls. Things are by no means perfect, especially as the day nears a close, but I am excited for the potential of actually praying throughout the day and the peace that can result. I challenge you to try it out too-whether you're single, married, with or without kids-your home should be a peaceful place you look forward to returning to at the end of the day (or in my case, a place I look forward to waking up to in the morning :-)

What's Cooking: Orange Chicken

2011-09-29T19:30:00.000-04:00

I'm back at it again (at least this week anyway). I've found another new recipe I wanted to try and I decided to share it with you all.

I've been hearing a lot of buzz lately about a site called Pinterest. I saw that a friend had joined and thought I should too. Basically, Pinterest is a site where you can organize what you would normally bookmark, but also share them with your friends. This way you can see all sorts of great ideas you may not normally stumble upon during a normal google search. I'm pretty slow to pin things at the moment, but hopefully over time I can build up a nice collection of interesting recipes, crafts, and other neat projects to pursue.

Anyway, my point: I have seen a number of great looking recipes that other people have pinned. One is for Orange Chicken cooked in the crock pot!

Modifications/Substitutions: I didn't cut the chicken into very small pieces because I wanted to be sure they wouldn't overcook and dry out. I ended up using vegetable oil instead of olive oil because my pan was pretty hot. Also, to spice things up a bit for Jonathan, we added a dash of red pepper flakes to his portion.

Ease: There was a little prep work involved in that I had to coat the chicken in flour and brown it before placing it in the slow cooker, but it was a simple and easy step. This was a very easy recipe to execute - 4.5 stars.

Affordability: I try to only buy boneless chicken when it is $1.99/pound. The other ingredients for this recipe are extremely affordable - 4 stars.

Taste: I had high expectations for this recipe. I loved being able to smell the chicken cooking, anticipating a wonderful feast. I was a little disappointed though. I managed to still overcook my chicken (ugh) and I think the sauce was a little tart (though this could be due to cooking it a tad too long). And the site the recipe comes from had pictures of genuine-looking orange chicken - mine looked nothing like it. Jonathan gives this recipe a 3.5 though. He was actually pretty happy with it.

Family Friendly: Why would your kids eat your chicken if your garbage disposal had a hard time chewing it? Seriously though, Abigail did really like the sauce and did actually eat some of the chicken. I think Sarah did try hers, but she passed on actually eating it. I think if I had executed this recipe better (like cutting down on the cook time) then we would have had more success. Poor chicken, only 2.5 stars for you. I am trying to make my kids like you, but cooking you is not one of my strengths.

What's Cooking Rating: 3.5 stars (rounded to the nearest 0.25)

6 Year Anniversary

2011-09-28T08:00:00.000-04:00

This weekend Jonathan and I celebrated 6 years of marriage. I was thinking about it and realized that for 3 of our 6 anniversary celebrations I was pregnant.

Anyway, we decided to celebrate the same way we did last year. Since we've been the only ones to put the girls down for the night we typically go out during the day. We had "fajitas for two" at a local Mexican restaurant followed by a round of mini-golf. I beat Jonathan by 10 points (to be fair, last year he beat me by 10 points). For those wondering what a pregnant woman (with 8 weeks to go) looks like playing mini-golf here you go:

And here's one of Jonathan:

The Aquarium!

2011-09-23T18:37:00.012-04:00

We went to the aquarium for a special family outing today. The last time we went was two years ago. Sarah tagged along, but this time she actually got to see the fish (since the last time she was a month shy of her due date ;-)

I tried to make our experience sort of like a field trip, so I made each of the girls an "Aquarium Scavenger Hunt" book. I picked 10 animals I knew the girls would see, jotted a few basic facts about them, and then had a check box for them to mark when we saw each one.

The girls had a blast. It was so fun to see them point and get excited with each new fish they saw. It was also cool because we happened to be there during feeding time for the giant main tank. The girls got to see a diver swim with the fish to feed them. They also got to see the giant sea turtle eat at the tank's surface.

Photo Fridays 09.23.11

2011-09-23T08:00:00.002-04:00

The girls started playing a new game this week. They'll each grab a pillow and a blanket, yawn and stretch, and then pretend to go to sleep.

Yesterday they "slept" on the coffee table and got a little taste of what bunk bed life will be like.

Jonathan's Birthday

2011-09-21T20:26:00.006-04:00

This past weekend was Jonathan's birthday. Now he is well into his 30's (ok, I'm exaggerating, he's only 31).

We had a pretty laid back birthday weekend. We finished it with nut-free German chocolate cake, homemade ice cream, and presents. Happy birthday to a wonderful husband and Daddy!

Photo Fridays 09.16.11

2011-09-16T19:35:00.008-04:00

It has been four solid weeks since Abigail's first day of homeschool. Today was another exciting first, Abigail's first day of co-op. After hearing about our homeschooling Abigail for preschool, a friend of mine invited us to join the homeschooling co-op she is a part of. I am so glad for the invite and for the opportunity to check out this aspect of homeschooling.

Every Friday Abigail will get together with other kids her age to learn her ABC's and 123's. She'll get to do crafts, read books, and spend time with some of her favorite people. She might even go on a field trip or two. I'll be an assistant for her class and also take care of Sarah along with another mom.

Today was a great first day. It was a bit challenging for me to try and keep Sarah entertained and quiet during our sessions. She even tried running off a few times. But, I'm sure with time, she'll get used to the idea of school. I think Abigail really enjoyed being around other people her age (and even some of the big kids). She wasn't too happy when it was time to go.

We're looking forward to what the rest of the school year holds!

Cousins!

2011-09-14T08:34:00.005-04:00

We've got to spend more time with my niece, Bridget in the past few days. I managed to grab a few pictures of her and my girls while we were out and about.

On Friday we took the girls to lunch. Unfortunately, there was only one high chair in the whole restaurant, so Bridget and Sarah had a little more freedom in their big girl chairs. Though, only Sarah took advantage and kept getting down and up to roam and such.

On Tuesday we drove Nonna around to run a few errands and Bridget came too. I was surprised to see that my 3 1/2 year old and my almost 2 year old did pretty much all of the whining, and Bridget (15 months) was as pleasant as could be. Here are my girls being silly and Bridget just sitting along for the ride.

Beautiful Sunday!

2011-09-11T20:58:00.009-04:00

This Sunday was such a beautiful day! The best part was spending it at the beach with our church, GENESIS, for our annual baptism service (we call it Get Drenched!). I've been talking about baptisms with Abigail all week and she, in turn, kept asking me when we were going to go to the baptism service. Needless to say, she was excited.

The girls were so well-behaved and sat through most of the service without making too much noise. Of course, it helped that the church floor was made of sand and they had buckets and shovels with them. We got to hear a number of people share their stories and then watched them as they were baptized in the Atlantic Ocean.

We stayed for a good 4 hours and all had a great time! I'm looking forward to next year!

Belly Shots: 30 Weeks!

2011-09-08T09:38:00.005-04:00

We are 75 percent done with this pregnancy! In 10 short weeks (or so) we will be welcoming Lily into the world.

My Doctor apparently likes "boring" pregnancies. My pregnancies with Abigail and Sarah were boring and my pregnancy with Lily is no different. My Doctor actually told me once that I was one of his best "customers" (not sure if this was because of the boring pregnancies or the fact that I am on number 3).

I don't have much new to report about little Lily's activity. I can say that she is very active though, especially at night. You can literally see her move sometimes.

Just for fun, here's a little top 10 list. I'll call it The Top 10 Things that are NOT My Friend.

10. My Stuffy Nose - I've been congested since the beginning of this pregnancy. Thankfully it gets better as the day goes on.

9. Cinnamon - One of the few "foods" that bother me, which is unfortunate because I really like cinnamon.

8. Maternity Pants - They just never seem to fit right. I do have one good pair of pants that I LOVE, but I can't get away with wearing them every day (plus, see #1).

7. Sitting up Straight - This at least isn't Lily's friend. When I try to sit up straight she will protest. She just doesn't get all that much room when I try to have a nice posture while sitting.

6. 1:30/2:00/2:30 PM - Every day without fail I hit a huge invisible wall. I lose all my energy and motivation.

5. Mornings - A few weeks ago I resolved to get up before the girls so I could get a head start on the day. This lasted exactly two days. Abigail then started getting up earlier than she had been. Jonathan gets up before the sun (around 5:15 or so) so he can have his quiet time and get freelance work done. Then the girls wake up and he gently wakes me up to tell me it's 6:45 or 7:00. I really should start getting to bed sooner.

4. Dropping Things - It is so frustrating to grab the diaper bag, my purse, and Sarah from the van, then go to our front door, keys in hand when OOPS there they go! So, I have to put Sarah down and bend over to grab the keys. Sometimes when I'm inside and drop something I just leave it to pick it up later.

3. Shoes with Laces - Ok, I'll be honest, I haven't put sneakers on in a very long time. I love being able to simply slip on my beloved flip flops. But, with the fall fast approaching I fear I will not be able to get away with it much longer. The more time passes, the more my belly will grow, making it more difficult to put on and tie my shoes. Note to self: maybe I should start teaching Abigail how to tie shoes.

2. The Animal Game - This one is my fault. Remember, way back when, when I invented a fun thing for the girls to do while I cleaned their room? Well, they love this game and they play it all. the. time. Sometimes a few times a day (also my fault, because I keep putting the animals away so they can keep tossing them in the crib). I really need to work on getting them to clean up after the dreaded animal game.

1. Stairs and Laundry - Our laundry room is downstairs. We have four people in our family and we all go through a decent amount of clothes. I'm not a fan of going up and down, up and down, just so my family can wear clean clothes ;-) Also, if I want to go anywhere, I have to use the stairs. And, if I want to come back, I have to use the stairs AGAIN (and going up)! Really, they aren't all that bad, it just takes a lot of time and energy.

And now for a belly shot:

Photo Fridays 09.02.11 - Fun at the Park

2011-09-02T17:40:00.008-04:00

We visited a new park today in Nonna, Uncle Nick and Auntie Laura's neck of the woods. We started off with a little picnic and then headed over to the playground. The setup was a little advanced for the girls, but they still managed to have some fun.

And for some more fun check out a post from a little over a year ago when all three girls went to the park.

She Wishes She Was a Little Bit Taller

2011-08-31T09:08:00.004-04:00

We bought Abigail her first bike a few weeks ago. While looking for one we gave Sarah the opportunity to check out tricycles. Sadly, her little legs weren't long enough to reach the pedals. So, whenever we take Abigail out to ride her bike Sarah has to play spectator. Though, lately, whenever Abigail runs off to "take a break" Sarah runs with all her might towards the big girl bike to take a try. This past Monday morning Daddy gave her a hand.

I think she liked it. Maybe next year!

Third Trimester

2011-08-25T14:16:00.003-04:00

Lily and I have entered into the third and final trimester. Twenty-eight weeks down, 12 to go! Part of me is ready to have her now while most of me is content waiting until November. I am having a harder time getting around and keeping up with the girls. At around 1-1:30 I hit a wall. I really need to be better about getting to bed sooner.

Lily makes her presence known whenever I get a chance to sit and relax. She does all sorts of acrobatics once the girls are in bed for the night. Lily seems to be a night person at the moment, which is something we will remedy hopefully once she is born :-)

This past weekend we did a little shopping. We ended up getting Lily's take-home outfit:

We're in the home stretch!

What's Cooking: Sweet Treats Edition

2011-08-24T09:00:00.004-04:00

I haven't really tried a whole lot of new recipes lately. At least none that I wanted to get into on this blog. If you need a quick and easy chicken skillet dish you can try Salsa-Cheddar Chicken from Kraft foods. We tried this last night and Jonathan and I liked it (the girls had a tougher time with it though).

There have been a few sweet treat recipes I've found online and tried that we've really enjoyed. There isn't much of a point in doing a What's Cooking segment because, really, what kids don't like sweets? And the point of this type of post is to find family-friendly recipes. Still, I thought these three recipes were worth sharing because they are either (1) amazing (2) super simple or (3) both.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
I had oatmeal. I had chocolate chips. I didn't have an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe though. So, I went to my go-to site AllRecipes.com and found this one for amazing chewy cookies. I only made one modification to this recipe because it calls for walnuts (which Abigail is allergic to). So, instead of walnuts I ended up adding extra chocolate chips (nothing wrong with a little more chocolate, right?). These cookies are sooooo good! This will definitely be my chocolate chip cookie go-to recipe.

Homemade Ice Cream
This next recipe I found on a cooking blog I subscribe to, Jamie Cooks it Up. The thing that convinced me to try this recipe was that you didn't need an ice cream machine and there were only three main ingredients I needed. We ended up adding chocolate chips and chocolate sauce to ours. The hardest part was waiting the 6 hours for it to freeze, but it was worth the wait. I couldn't believe how smooth and creamy it was. We will definitely make this again, so yummy and so easy!

Smore Cookies
I saw these cookies, again on Jamie Cooks it Up, and just had to make them. They looked so amazing! I ended up making these yesterday with Abigail, which wasn't the best idea. The recipe is not the simplest and Abigail is very impatient. Her persistence and impatience led her to say over, and over, and over things like, "Mommy, I need a marshmallow" and "Mommy, I need chocolate" and "Mommy, can I have a cookie please?" So I had to keep telling her we were waiting until all the cookies were done until we had them.

One quick tip: I ended up cutting the recipe in half, because I didn't want 48 cookies. But instead of rolling the dough into 2-inch balls (which I thought was a little much) I used my small ice cream scoop. This resulted in 36 cookies instead of an expected 24.

Here's Abigail asking for chocolate:

Here's the final product:

It was a lot of work, but the end result was worth it. We were not disappointed.

So, there you have it, three sweet treats that I will make again for sure. I hope you get a chance to try them out for yourself!

First Day of School

2011-08-22T20:00:00.001-04:00

Today was Abigail's first day of preschool. We started earlier than usual because (1) once Abigail learned she'd be doing school she hasn't stopped talking about it and (2) I wanted to get a good routine going before Lily comes in November.

To start I decided to do a few simple things in the morning so that Sarah can participate. We did the bulk of our school though during her naptime.

Our morning session consisted mainly of our calendar. I finished it up to include the temperature and what Abigail should wear for the weather. We sang a few songs about the days of the week and months of the year. Then I thought it would be good to focus on our color of the week: yellow. I picked up a simple book on the color yellow at the library. It was a nice way to introduce new words to Sarah and also go over all sorts of things that are yellow. After reading that a few times we went around the apartment pointing out all of the yellow things.

Our afternoon session was pretty simple. I introduced our verse for the week, read a story about it, and then Abigail read cards with the phrase "I see 1 lion" (or "I see 1 lock") with corresponding pictures of items starting with the letter "l" (our letter of the week). The thing I like about this curriculum is that it doesn't start with "Aa" but instead starts with "Ll", which is one of the easier letters to write. We'll see how writing goes in the coming days. After all this we read a book about the letter "L" and then called it a day.

On a quick side note, Monday is our "clean up" day-a day where we stay home and the girls play around while Mom plays catch up on chores. I was still able to do this and fit in our lesson. While I was cleaning the bathroom Abigail got a hold of our camera. I wanted to just take it from her, but then encouraged her to take pictures of things that are yellow. It was fun to see what she came up with:

part of her plastic golf setbutterflies on her backpackSarah's floatie

Photo Fridays 08.19.11

2011-08-19T07:00:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we went to a spray park. I had decided on a spontaneous trip the night before, figuring the girls would love it. They had a blast! I wish I had known about this place earlier in the summer. It's only about a 20 minute drive away and it is on a reservation/park, so we got to have a little "hike" before making it to the sprinklers. Plus, they had swings, slides, and clean restrooms!

What's in a Name?

2011-08-17T19:40:00.000-04:00

Some people grow up knowing what they want to name their children. Others wait until the moment their baby is in their arms before the name comes to them. Once we knew "boy or girl" we went to work on what we wanted to call our little girls (though Abigail was a for sure name before we were close to having kids).

We wanted something biblical for our kids. Abigail and Sarah both fit the bill. But then it came time to look up other biblical girl names this time around, which we were able to narrow down to Naomi and Leah.

The meaning behind each name we picked was not as important in our decision-making, but I am happy with our results. Abigail means "Joy of the Father" while Sarah Elizabeth means "Princess" and "God is my oath".

What about our third front-runner, Lily? I stumbled upon the name while reading a girls name post in a message board I am part of. Suddenly it hit me, the name Lily is biblical in a way and also has great meaning.

When I found out I was pregnant with our third I was happy, of course, but also scared. Three kids? Three? But when I saw the name Lily I was soon reminded of part of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount:

“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
Matthew 6:25-34 (emphasis mine)

So there you go, no need to worry. If God takes care of the birds of the air and the lilies of the field He will surely take care of us, no matter how many children He blesses us with! There is not enough time and space to go into the meaning of her middle name, Grace (which means favor or goodwill). God has blessed us more than we even realize sometimes in how He has provided for our financial, spiritual, and emotional needs.

We can't wait to meet our little Lily Grace!

Better Late than Never

2011-08-14T20:07:00.002-04:00

So, a number of months ago my computer started making a clicking sound. Then, my hard drive crashed. My advice to you: if your computer starts making a clicking sound, back it up! I hadn't in a while and ended up losing a lot of stuff.

We were eligible for a free replacement drive, but in the meantime were using a much smaller one we already had. Because of this I quickly ran out of room and couldn't import anymore photos or videos. I got my replacement this week and Jonathan set me up with a newer, faster, and larger hard drive!

Remember reading about Abigail's first Vacation Bible School experience? Here is a little video of her singing with her classmates. This was one of her favorite songs from the week and she'll still sing it on occasion:

In other news: stay tuned for a post in the coming days announcing Baby #3's name!

100 Days

2011-08-09T09:00:00.000-04:00

We've only got 100 days left until our little girls' estimated date of arrival. While talking about "the baby coming out" with Abigail she often talks about it happening now. It is hard to explain to her that we've still got a little while to go. We'll start by saying it won't happen until November. Then we say it'll be in the fall. Finally we let Abigail in on the chain of events that have to occur before her little sister is born (Daddy's birthday, then Sarah's birthday, then sister's birthday).

Today I decided we'd make a paper chain. Yesterday Abigail and I put together 100 strips of paper to represent the 100 days we have left until the baby is due. As each day passes we'll tear off a part of the chain. Hopefully this will give Abigail a better idea of how much time we have left.

Getting Ready

2011-08-07T07:30:00.001-04:00

I've been thinking a lot about Abigail and school lately. A lot of kids her age will be starting some form of preschool in the fall. I never really considered signing her up. You see, we still haven't decided whether we will home-school or not.

For those of you who may not know, Jonathan and his brothers were all home-schooled through high school. I never really would have considered it as a serious option for our girls if this hadn't been the case. Jonathan is super supportive and doesn't expect our default schooling of choice to be home school, but he does expect me to prayerfully consider and be open to it (which is totally reasonable!).

So, as part of OUR prayerful consideration, we have decided to home-school Abigail for preschool as sort of a trial run. As I get ready for our time together I get really excited! Other times I am overwhelmed.

We'll see how it goes though and hopefully we can share a bit of what we learn with you! A friend of mine pointed me to a homeschooling website called 1+1+1=1. We'll be using her Raising Rock Stars Preschool materials. She offers so many free printables and also makes them available for quick download for a nominal fee. Here are some of the preparations we've been making the past week or so:

I really liked the idea of a calendar, I modeled ours after this one on the 1+1+1 website. We're not quite finished with it. I need to add a few pockets and also some temperature stick-ups and clothing stick-ups (hot hot/cold is it? and what should I wear in this weather?).

I also put together a little binder to hold Abigail's work and a binder for me to hold all my teacher stuff (all of the printouts came from 1+1+1=1).

Abigail keeps talking about school. I think she's looking forward to the next week or so being over so we can get started!

Photo Fridays 08.05.11

2011-08-05T07:50:00.002-04:00

I didn't take a lot of pictures this week, though we did get out and have some fun. On Tuesday we went outside so Abigail could ride her new bike. About 15 minutes into our fun, both the girls were distracted by the sprinklers (I hadn't become familiar with their schedule). At that point I had lost control and they were soaked within minutes. Here's a cute picture of Sarah getting dry/warmed up:

New Wheels

2011-07-31T20:05:00.005-04:00

We were running errands on Saturday when Abigail let us know that she wanted to look at the bicycles. We went ahead and let her, and then Jonathan and I had a quick chat. We had talked about getting Abigail a bike for a little while now and thought maybe it would make a good Christmas or birthday present. Jonathan thought now would be a good time and we had a deal. Later in the afternoon Abigail tried out her new bike for the first time.

She did not want to stop. And, I have to add that Abigail has not stopped talking about her bike and needing/wanting to ride it.

One of these days I'll make more space on my hard drive for videos to upload. I'm hoping to once my replacement hard drive comes in the mail. Stay tuned!

Photo Fridays 07.29.11

2011-07-29T13:02:00.003-04:00

On Sunday we celebrated Nonna's birthday. The girls had fun eating (and making a mess of) cake and ice cream. Every time Abigail sees this picture of Sarah she gets a big laugh. Sarah didn't want me snapping pictures at the time.

And here is Abigail.

Belly Shots: 24 Weeks

2011-07-29T12:54:00.002-04:00

So here we are at 24 weeks with Baby #3. Not much has changed. I've felt plenty of kicks. Now that our little girl is bigger Jonathan and even Abigail have had the chance to feel her move.

Sleeping is starting to get more uncomfortable. I'm at that point where I have to sit up straight if I want to turn over.

Here's another belly shot, just because:

What's Cooking: The Hall of Shame

2011-07-26T20:00:00.001-04:00

I've tried a number of new recipes that I fully intended to document, but they were pretty big failures for one reason or another, so I didn't want to bother. But I'm all about being honest and up front. So, without further ado, here is the What's Cooking Hall of Shame Volume I.

Crazy Curly Broccoli Bake (Kid-Friendly)

Not all the recipes I find on AllRecipes.com are a success. A recipe I found for Crazy Curly Broccoli was not a success (in my opinion). As I was making this recipe I got really excited. This was going to be a easy and healthy recipe that smelled just like Panera's broccoli cheddar soup (my favorite). I couldn't wait to eat it. Then I did. It seriously lacked flavor. Though, I have to admit that the girls picked through the broccoli to eat the pasta, so no one left the table hungry.

Chicken Puffs

Yet another AllRecipes.com pick. This one was a failure though because I decided to get all fancy and make a few changes to it. This recipe for Chicken Puffs got rave reviews. I thought I'd be all "healthy" and add a few vegetables to make it more like an individual pot pie. Then I stuffed the croissants more than the recipe called for. Finally, they were nice and brown, but still doughy in the middle. The girls were not impressed, and neither was I (but I do not blame the recipe, I blame my changes).

Creamed Asparagus Soup

You probably just read this title and thought, "what was she thinking?" I was thinking I would be able to make a healthy vegetable soup that the girls would actually eat. I was wrong. I found this recipe while paging through a food magazine. The recipe is available here. I thought it looked good, and it was! The girls didn't agree. Sarah used her soup as organic finger paints shortly after her first taste. I had to do a lot of encouraging and commanding to get Abigail to take a taste. They each took one bite and then that was that. Oh well.

I hope you enjoyed our first installment of the What's Cooking Hall of Shame. I'm hoping it takes a while before I have three more recipes that fit this category.

Busy Week

2011-07-20T13:26:00.006-04:00

Last week we took Abigail to Vacation Bible School (VBS) at Immanuel Church. This was Abigail's first VBS experience and she LOVED it! Here is a picture of each of the girls getting ready for their first day:

I loved it too because Immanuel Church also had a program for Moms. We did lessons similar to what our kids were learning, watched a few parenting talks on DVD, and the best part-had fellowship with other adults! Oh wait, maybe the best part was that child care was provided for those under 3. I have to say that this Mom's program was such a blessing!

On Thursday night the kids shared with us what they learned during the week. Abigail loved being on stage and singing. Here is a little sneak peek of her in the form of a photo. I'll upload the video when I am able to make room on my hard drive for it :-)

Ask Me Later

2011-07-18T09:00:00.000-04:00

We headed to North Andover's Town Common Sunday evening to watch Papa's bluegrass band Ask Me Later play in the town's summer concert series. This is something Abigail and I have been talking about for a good week now. Needless to say, she was looking forward to watching Papa sing and play his instrument.

Despite the high temperatures today we stayed cool in the shade and with a nice breeze. The girls spent most of the concert dancing, clapping, running after other kids, and running after other kids' toys. Also, we had to grab the girls (mostly Abigail) a few times to keep them from getting too close to the stage (and even on the stage, in Abigail's case).

We had a great time seeing family and watching the band. This was the perfect way to top off the weekend!

Photo Fridays 07.15.11

2011-07-15T09:00:00.000-04:00

The girls and I went to the beach with our friend Jennifer on Thursday. We had a great time. We were able to hang out and catch up while the girls got to play in the sand and splash in the water. It was the perfect day to get away!

Belly Shots: 22 Weeks

2011-07-14T21:49:00.004-04:00

Another quick update on the happenings with Baby #3. We are at 22 weeks now. This little girl is starting to take up more and more space. She does plenty of moving and kicking during the quiet evening hours when her sisters are sleeping. These updates are sounding an awful lot alike.

Thanks to you who voted on our little girl's potential name. Keep voting! So far the top voted-for names are Lily Grace, Leah Rebekah, and Naomi Grace. We still haven't made a decision, but when we do we'll let you know!

We've been talking to Abigail lately about names for her baby sister. Abigail isn't the greatest with names. When at Build-A-Bear we ask her what she wants to name her bear/kitty/etc. More often than not she will want to call it bear/kitty/etc. The fish she got for her birthday still doesn't really have a name. We just call it "fish". I was surprised, though, when Abigail actually had an opinion about her baby sister's name. I've given her the top three names and she always prefers Naomi. The funny thing is that she can't quite say it right though and says it different every time :-)

Stay tuned, hopefully I won't have to keep referring to her as Baby #3.

Nesting and a Fun Craft

2011-07-12T19:36:00.007-04:00

This Saturday I decided that I needed to be thorough in our vacuuming of the living room. We moved tables, the couch, everything. While we were busy deep cleaning Jonathan suggested rearranging the furniture. I was all for it. We had had the same basic set-up since we were married almost six years ago.

This set off a nesting kick for me. I then moved to the girls room where I thought I would do some organizing and consolidating to make room for our third girl. The girls' room has a huge closet that, unfortunately, was filled with a lot of Mommy and Daddy's stuff. So, I moved a lot of things into our room (which still needs to be gone through and put away). I then emptied a cabinet we had in the closet and moved it into the room. I am now using this for the girls clothes instead of the rubber-maid-type drawers under the beds. Now the drawers are holding craft items in the closet (I did all this because we're getting bunk beds in the fall and there won't be room for much under bed storage for clothes). So, are you all glad for that long-winded explanation?

My Mom asked how we were decorating the girls' room. I hadn't really thought about it, so her question ended up inspiring me. She bought the girls pink "coverlets" and is making them afghans with blues, purples, and the same pink. I'm excited to see how everything turns out. On the girls' bedroom door we have two foam flowers Abigail and I made a while back. We decided we needed to make another one for her baby sister, which is what we did this afternoon. You can find all sorts of free craft patterns and directions online, which is where we found this pattern for "Retro Window Watchers".

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

2011-07-09T15:01:00.002-04:00

Part of the reason I wanted to find out if we were having a boy or a girl was so we could get started on picking out a name. I knew this would not be an easy decision to make. With Abigail it was a piece of cake-we had her name picked out long before we ever got pregnant. With Sarah it took a bit more time, but we were able to agree pretty quickly. With Baby #3 it is a different story.

Jonathan and I decided to come up with three name possibilities each. Then we would share our lists with each other and voila, we would magically agree on our baby girls name. Well, we shared our names with each other and now have six names to choose from instead of three.

I won't tell you who picked which name, or which one is my favorite, but we are sharing our options with you. Please click here to vote on your favorite (or click on the button to the right of this post).

On another note, I had a second anatomy ultrasound Friday because our baby girl wasn't in the best position for heart pictures. I loved my Ultrasound Tech, because she was so friendly and because she printed out eight new pictures for us to take home. My favorite one is below-look at that crazy leg and that cute profile!

Photo Fridays 07.08.11

2011-07-08T09:00:00.001-04:00

Sarah playing dress-up. She had me cracking up!

July 4th Weekend

2011-07-05T22:00:00.003-04:00

We had a pretty busy weekend celebrating the Fourth.

On Saturday we went to the beach - which was a blast. On Sunday we had what I call Red, White, and Blue Scones (I added blueberries as well as strawberries). Check out this recipe from FamilyFun. They were really good!

We then went to church and then headed to Nonna and Papa's for a cookout. We enjoyed all sorts of grilled meat thanks to Uncle Nick. After lunch we decided to set up the sprinkler for the girls. The sprinkler didn't work though, so Nonna had to do things the old fashioned way.

We then headed to North Andover to my Great-Aunt's house for dinner and fireworks. Unfortunately the town postponed the show due to rain. I'm still glad we went though, and the girls found ways to entertain themselves. Papa also provided some entertainment with his guitar.

Sunday night into Monday morning was rough. Sarah woke up around 1:00 AM pretty upset. Jonathan went in for the rescue and managed to get her back to sleep. A few minutes later, though, she woke up upset again. A little water, Tylenol, and 1 1/2 hours later she fell asleep right smack dab in the middle of our bed. Jonathan went to the couch and I stayed with Sarah.

The girls slept in a little, but not what we were hoping for. We had a pretty lazy Monday morning. Jonathan and I thought the girls would have fun going to the pool in our complex. That turned out to not be such a great idea. There was a lot of whining because the girls weren't getting what they wanted (which was mostly pool toys that belonged to OTHER kids). We quickly left the pool, had lunch, and then all four of us had a much-needed afternoon nap.

We nixed our Monday night plans to go out to see local fireworks. I was planning on waking Abigail up to see the Boston fireworks on TV. Instead, when I found out that the fireworks in DC were on PBS I let the girls stay up for the fireworks we would have seen if we were down in Virginia. It wasn't quite the same as actually being there, but we still had a lot of fun with it, and the girls went to bed pretty smoothly afterwards.

Abigail took this picture...

Sand, Sun, and Fun!

2011-07-02T19:15:00.014-04:00

Earlier this week Jonathan brought up the idea to take the girls to the beach this weekend. I was surprised he suggested it because he isn't the biggest fan of the beach. Regardless, I jumped on the chance to go and started making plans.

We kicked off our Fourth of July weekend with a trip to the Salisbury Beach State Park Reservation. We got there around 9:15, which ended up being a perfect time to arrive.

After setting up our spot we brought the girls closer to the water so they could play in the sand. It took Sarah a bit of time to get used to the feel of the sand on her feet and hands. By the end of the day she had sand everywhere.

While we were building castles Abigail decided that she needed to get some water. This made for a nice transition to splashing in the frigid Atlantic. Abigail would run toward the waves, then give a little girl scream and run away from oncoming waves. I got a really good shot of her expression as she ran away from one. Sarah mostly hung out with Daddy and occasionally let go to walk around and splash. It didn't take long though for the shivering to set in-so we decided to get back to our spot for a break.

The girls played in the sand some more, then we had a nice picnic lunch. After a bit more playing in the sand we attempted to fly a kite, but failed at it (I blame it on the kite ;-) After a solid three hours we decided to call it a beach day. The girls were worn out (you know, Abigail, Sarah and Mommy).

We had a great time. So great, in fact, that I think it would be pretty easy to convince Jonathan to do another beach trip in the near future!

Photo Fridays 07.01.11

2011-07-01T16:16:00.003-04:00

Abigail giving a "thumbs up" with all our stuff-getting ready for a trip to the beach tomorrow!

Belly Shots: 20 Weeks

2011-06-30T21:49:00.002-04:00

Today marks the halfway point in my pregnancy. Twenty weeks down, twenty weeks to go!

There isn't a whole lot to report beyond our finding out we are having another girl. I will tell you though that I am feeling a lot more movement and kicking than I did last week. I notice our little girl moving around whenever I get a chance to take a little break, and especially at night once things settle down. I can't wait until Jonathan and the girls can feel her kicks too!