A girl's day out--Sleeping Beauty

This past Saturday, Ella and myself went to go see the musical Sleeping Beauty at a local dinner theater. The show lasted ~ 1 hour and included a Rice Krispie treat and a juice box. Somehow my juice box was empty?? I hope you enjoyed it, El, but this pregnant mama made sure to eat my Rice Krispie treat!

I love having this one on one time with my girls and feel blessed at opportunities like this. Ella is such a low-key, easy going girl that it's easy to miss opportunities to do something out of the ordinary as she's ok just hanging out at home with mom. I am so glad my friends and I were able to take our daughters out for some mommy/daughter time. These are very special memories and although Ella probably won't remember this, I will always remember our one on one times together.

The past few days, Ella has been hugging me and saying that I am her best friend. Amazing how such a cute, little comment can make a mom's day! These little comments are a nice reinforcement that we must be doing "something" right. Thanks for making me smile, Ella.... I love you!

The infamous juice box.
Yeah, we don't get juice at our house, so the little things bring the biggest smiles...a juice box :)

Laney's Day Out

Ella was so excited for her Valentine's Day Party at school and Laney kept asking to have a party too. Although I wasn't up for that, I thought it would be fun for her to have some mama/Laney time. So a few Fridays ago, we went to the Children's Museum with Jen, Carly and Jack. Laney was so excited to have some time with mama and not have to share my attention.

We had so much fun together! Laney is such a spirited child and I love how affectionate she is. She is never out of hugs or kisses and is quite the talker. I love you, my little Laney Leigh!

I wonder if she will feed her baby brother like this?
Watch out for the baby's eye!

Playing Connect 4 with Carly

Thanks for playing peek-a-boo with me, Laney.
You are always up for that game
and I love hearing your laugh when I find you!

We'll miss you Grandpa Stan

This past Tuesday Jason's grandfather, Stanley Lee Willett, passed away. He was always such a sweet man with the strongest handshakes imaginable. He has had a tough few months but being the deeply religious man that he is, I know that he is up in heaven with the Lord. We will miss Grandpa Stan very much but find comfort knowing that he is in heaven.

Although we did not get together under the best circumstances, it is always fun to see Jason's family. He has a very large family compared to mine, so it can sometimes turn into a name game when it comes to all the little kids :)

Here are few pics we got at a reception following the funeral:

Jason's aunt and uncle: Jeff and Carol

Laney loving the Nana kisses

Jason's aunts: Shirley and Linda

Jason's cousin, Renee, and his dad, Stan

Jason's cousin and her husband: Kevin and Lisa

Although it was a long few days, the girls did remarkably well.
They were fed lots of treats and Laney quickly found
out where the brownies were kept.
I bet she had at least 4 brownies in a 2 hour period--that's my girl!

Uncle Paul, Jason's Dad, Uncle Jeff and Uncle Harry

Christina and her son, Parker

Cousins Kayla and Izzy

This really is some A+ Gymnastics

Today I was able to shoot some videos with our new camcorder and more importantly edit the videos with the new software. With my old camera, I could take videos but I wasn't able to crop the length, cut out parts, or take out the sound. With the new camcorder comes many more options to make our videos look somewhat better :)

It was take your friend to gymnastics day and Ella took Carly. Ella, Carly and Abby all did great and had a fun time together. There are usually 3 kids in her gymnastics class but today there was a fair amount as many brought friends to the program.

Ella's favorite: the trampoline

Moving to the next area

They don't always have the bouncy house up, so this was a special treat!

I love their balance beam work

Ella and Abby sharing the low beam

The baby's manhood

I have had a few say that they weren't able tell from our ultrasound pics that we are having a boy. There is a reason for that; in theory I wanted to be left in the dark about the sex.

But here is one to prove his manhood (I took this pic while looking at the ultrasound video, so it's not the best quality).

Can you tell it's a boy?

Thanks Nana Kay!

Jason was gone for most of this week, and since I wasn't feeling well, my mom came up to help with the girls. My mom was such a huge help even though Laney didn't let her get much sleep. Laney has a cold and was up crying most nights my mom was here. My mom took good care of her grandbaby while this pregnant woman slept soundly...I heard nothing.

I just love having the company! Thanks, Mom, for all of your help!!!

Ella and Nana during craft time

After craft time, Laney thought it was the perfect time to get naked :)

Getting some good use out of the art easel

My budding Picasso

Isn't it fun to paint your hand?

For those that have the Melissa & Doug easel, these paint containers are part of the accessory set sold separately. These cups were great! They didn't spill over and it had a great surface for getting excess paint off. At the end of craft time, a lid can be put on top to save it for later. I highly recommend these cups!

A few of the final products

After painting, it was time for showing off her scissor skills

This was taken yesterday before the storm rolled in. It felt so nice outside!

Thanks for your help, Nana! My mama sure needed it :)

And Nana needed a nap! But the girls thought it was so funny
that Nana was trying to sleep on the couch, so they woke her up......sorry (again!) Nana!

The littlest always gets blamed

My friend, Steph, watches the girls when I am at work. This was the story from yesterday.

Steph noticed that Laney's shirt and socks were soaked. She asked Laney how she got wet and Laney proceeded to show her the water that was in the pretend kitchen sink. Laney had been splashing her hands in the water (not surprising for a 2 year old).

Steph: Ella and Abby, did you put water in the pretend kitchen sink?
Ella and Abby: No
Steph: Well, then how did it get there?
Ella and Abby in unison: Laney did it

Really? Considering Laney can't reach the real sink and even if she did get the water in a bowl, she never would have been able to carry that much water to the pretend kitchen sink without spilling it all over the floor.

Hmmm.......plotting against her younger sister already!

The two accomplices:

Laney-isms

This was our 5 minute conversation this morning:

Laney: I want my phone
Me: Would you like your phone?
Laney: uh-huh
Me: Laney, we say, "yes, please" not "uh-huh"
Laney: Yes, please.

So we try it again:
Me: Laney, would you like the phone?
Laney: Uh-huh
Me: Laney, say, "yes, please."
Laney: Yes, please.

Once again (I was not giving in until she said "yes, please" without being prompted versus "uh-huh.")
Me: Laney, would you like the phone?
Laney: Uh-huh
Me: Laney, say, "yes, please."
Laney: Yes, please.

This same conversation went on at least 10 times and although I wanted her to say "yes, please" it became rather comical when she would say "uh-huh." She is a stubborn one but at the same time, a hysterical one :)

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We read this book every night to Laney...can you tell?

Ultrasound ~ The baby is already telling us who is boss!

This morning was my 20 week ultrasound. We were ridiculously excited to see our baby "come to life." I did not want to find out the sex but did agree to let Jason bring in a piece of paper so that the ultrasound tech could write down if it was a boy or a girl. I was content with this decision of Jason knowing and me not.

Well, the baby had much different plans! As the tech was measuring the legs, the baby did a flip and showed us what "it" was. It was as clear as day that we were having a boy! I asked the tech and she jokingly said, "maybe that was the cord." I knew it wasn't the cord. It looked as if the baby was sitting on a glass table and we were looking up. I still wasn't 100% convinced so I just kept an open mind through the rest of the ultrasound. All of this happened within the first 3 minutes of the ultrasound; exciting first few minutes!

The tech kept her promise and wrote down the sex of the baby on a piece of paper. Not only did she fold the paper, but she stapled it so there was no peaking :) Jason and I went to the waiting room because I needed to see the doctor next. I said he could open the piece of paper because I did want to confirm that it was a boy (I could see myself buying a ton of baby boy clothes and then the baby pop out a girl). Jason was so excited to tell me that yes, it is indeed a boy!!!! We got the baby's ultrasound on tape but really, who has a VCR anymore? If anybody in the Indy area does, we would love to come watch our baby boy on the big screen again :)

My doctor's appointment went well. The heartbeat is 141, the heart/kidney/brain/stomach, etc of baby boy is just perfect and everything is progressing well. The baby weighs 14 oz. I got the results of the genetic screening and everything looks good. Although this isn't 100% accurate, it is always nice to hear more good news.

My weight is insane (check below picture) but the doctor says she wouldn't have even brought it up if I hadn't. I haven't even been craving my Dairy Queens this time around! But if I am going to be massive anyways, maybe I should start going back to my blizzards :)

Ella has always called Laney, "baby" so I asked her what she was going to call the baby in my belly. Ella said, "I will call her The Baby." We are very original around here! Ella has always thought the baby was a girl but this morning she said it was a boy (maybe she is psychic?). When we told her that she was right and it was a boy, she said she wanted a girl instead. Just like us women...we never know what we want :)

Jason and I are obviously excited that the baby is healthy and measuring right on schedule. It will be so exciting to fill our house with some blue and start planning for Baby Boy Willett!!!!!!

The paper the tech filled out:

We found a VCR player buried in our basement.
Although the names the girls came up for the baby boy were good names
(baby, Laney and monkey) I think we might need to keep thinking :)

A snowman taller than my husband?

After church today, Ella said that she wanted to go outside and play in the snow. I knew it was slightly warmer than last week so I said sure. Then when Laney woke up from her nap she asked to go outside too. So I got her bundled up in her hat, coat, scarf, and mittens and we joined Jason and Ella outside. But we quickly realized that we didn't need the whole winter garb today! It was a beautiful day to build a snowman and in my eyes the perfect snowman building weather--it was 40-45 degrees :)

This was Laney's first time in the snow and although she liked the feel of it, I had to place it in her hands. For some reason, she wouldn't pick the snow up from the ground.

Ella loved climbing the mounds of snow we had surrounding our driveway; the piles of snow were a good 4 feet tall.

Ella, are you helping Dad build the snowman or are you throwing a snow ball at Mom?

Laney helping build the massive snowman

Ella and one of our many big mounds of snow

Laney was so excited to see that Carly and her dad, Troy, were coming over.

Wow these noses are tough to put on.

Look at me holding snow!

Now that is one big snowman :)
Jason had a great time building the snow man, and the girls enjoyed
accessorizing with the scarf, the nose, the eyes, the arms.
Jason happily put a University of Cincinnati hat on the snowman.