I'm not heavy for my height, I'm just too short for my weight!

16 weeks pregnant. I'm not smiling, but I'm also not vomiting. That makes this a good picture!

20 weeks pregnant. Only halfway and people are asking if I'll be delivering soon. Fun times.

A day at our lake

Most every day I send the kids to play in the back yard. We have an old swing-set and a rope swing hanging from one of our huge trees in the corner of our property, and several other fun spots for kids to play.

Now Brielle wanted to pose for me.

On this day it was too beautiful to stay home so we walked across the street to our lake and our park.


Silver Lake. It's so handy living by your own body of water.


Every other minute I'd look up and see this. I can't tell you how many times he would've toppled in if I hadn't grabbed him by a leg right as it disappeared over the edge.

And after dangling to touch the water, then naturally we must run screaming off the dock...

Over, and over, and over again!

Her children seem much more manageable. =0)

Brielle wading...

Kip waiting.
And now they're fishing. I like that in this picture you can see our other playground across the lake. Our house is midway between the two, so it's a short walk in either direction to find a park. We're so spoiled!

I love summer days.

Marine Biology

One of my favorite things about where I live is that on sunny days we can say to ourselves "I think I'll go to the beach today..." and within 15 minutes we'll be sitting by the Ocean. You just can't beat that.

The other day we went to a rocky beach to find crabs. A few miles of the beach were sanctioned as an Off-Leash Dog area, so Kip came too.


As you can see the tide was very low, perfect for finding creatures!

Russell's crab

Brielle inspecting barnacles, chitons, limpets and sea anemones.

I waded in a bit to pick up this big blue starfish.

Brielle with Big Blue....

(why yes, I did make Brielle's skirt all by myself, thanks for noticing!)

We caught all types and shapes of crabs, some with shells, some without, all sizes of starfish, some little fish, sea snails, and two wild golf balls. And we saw lots of things in pools or attached to rocks that we didn't bother capturing.

Hyrum mostly filled his bucket with mud!

And then at the end we let everything go back to it's home. Despite tears and pleading to do otherwise!
Ahhh, my favorite. Whenever Hyrum encounters a bucket (or pot, pan, box, etc......) he must place it over his head and say "I.....am.....Robot.....I....am Robot......" Not sure where he gets that from (but if I had to hazard a guess I'd say his dad). =0)

How crafty am I!

I made Brielle's skirt from scratch. Well, not scratch per se, but from a pillowcase and some elastic. I tried to give it that fun, flirty, my-Mom-doesn't-know-how-to-sew look that's all the rage right now. I think I succeeded.

I made it similar to this method here: Pillowcase Skirt Except I'm wild and free-spirited, and so I didn't measure, or cut the same number of panels, or the same sizes. And in some places I have a single hem, and others a double. It's the coolest.

I'll probably start charging for my work soon.

(Brielle doesn't like posing for me, Hyrum on the other hand will strike a pose at the merest hint of a camera)

We love Costco!

I bribe my kids to go to grocery stores. I admit it. Usually I don't have to supply the bribe; at Albertson's they get a chocolate chip cookie from the bakery, Fred Meyer has terrible cookies but they have a play-place for the kids, and Costco....Costco has samples. My children love samples, because they're always changing, and very often there's jelly beans or fruit snacks or ice cream being handed out. That's their favorite store.

However I didn't realize how often we went to Costco until one Sunday when I was trying to "hush" Hyrum for the Sacrament. Brielle, in an effort to help, whispered loudly: "Quiet Hyrum, the SAMPLES are coming!!"

Yeah, we have some church doctrine to go over I guess.

I TRIED to tell you!

Claiming to be pregnant on April Fool's Day, when you're not, is so amateur. I can't tell you how hurt I am that some of you think I would try that.

Puh-lease!! Give me some credit!

Claiming to be pregnant on April Fool's day, and really being pregnant, now that's more my style! And even better if you're actually 5 months pregnant. Russell and I found out in December that we're expecting our third and last child. (Each child has been "the last", we're very firm on that!)


By the way, it's a GIRL!


See how cute! She's sleeping on her tummy, just like an Anne Geddes picture:



It's sad when people become so cynical that they won't believe their own family and friends. Truly it is.

P.S. The Radiologist said it's probably a girl. Actually to correctly quote him, he said he is "70% sure that it's 100% girl." Yeah. Here's the picture of the little bottom and femurs, I don't know about you, but I'd say it's a girl all right!

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter, hunting for eggs, watching Conference, and having family over for dinner. We didn't take many pictures, but one highlight was in the morning while the children were searching for eggs. Brielle was much quicker about finding them and I asked her to slow down so that Hyrum could find some too. "Okay Mom!" Then Brielle proceeded to take Hyrum around showing him where each and every egg was, both children placed all the eggs they found into Hyrum's bucket until I had to tell Brielle to start putting some in her own basket as well before all the eggs were gone. Such sweet kids sometimes!

Confession

The photograph of the pregnancy test is a stock image from the internet.

I haven't peed on any pregnancy tests this year....yet.

But I do love April Fool's Day!

Ahem........

That's right.

You heard me. =0)