It's A....

I can't believe that I am already to the half way mark with this pregnancy.  It seems to be going by super fast.  I had my 20 week ultra sound this past week.  This is the ultra sound when it is common to find out the sex of the baby.  This time around I decided that I did not want to.  Aaron being the awesome husband that he is agreed to it.  So it's still a baby!  Yep that's right we don't know if its a boy or a girl and we won't find out until the little one is born.

It was interesting for me to know that the sex of the baby was not written down by anyone.  I think that the ultra sound technician might know but she didn't tell anyone or write it down.  I was a little worried that in future appointments the nurse or doctor might let it slip what the sex is, but I feel comforted that my doctor doesn't know and its not written on my chart any where.

Every time the technician would view an area of the baby down near the region in question I would glance away.  I didn't want to accidentally see something.  This baby is a mover though.  Rarely did it stay in one spot for very long.  Luckily the technician was good and would quickly grab a picture before the baby moved away.  Jack asked to hear the heart beat and seriously we would hear the heart beat for like two seconds before the baby moved away again.  Baby won't have that much room to move around so freely for long though!

The ultra sound confirmed the due date of August 13th, which didn't happen with Jack or Paige.  The measurements for Jack and Paige were a few days off, not enough to change my due date.  Not sure what this means, I am hoping that I still get a small baby and not a big one.  Either way we can't wait to see if we have a little girl or a little boy.

Purplicious Party

One of the things that Paige wanted for her birthday was a purple party.  Since I enjoy planning and hosting little parties I was more than willing to oblige.  

Here are the invites that we sent out to her little friends:

We asked everyone to come in purple or blue (for the boys since I figured most boys don't own purple clothes)

One of Paige's favorite treats is candy.  Any sort of candy.  With that in mind I thought a purple candy bar would be a fun treat to send home with the kids and a very purple decor display.

Here is the birthday girl ready for the party.  All decked out in purple.  This dress was one of her requests for her birthday.  She asked for a purple twirly dress made from a sheet.  My mom made this awesome dress for her.  It is so very twirly.  Thanks Noni!  When I asked her why a sheet she said its because that is how the princesses make all of their dresses!  LOL funny girl.

 Purple cupcakes with purple sprinkles.

Purple m&m's and purple/pink sweet tart gummies.

purple salt water taffy!

Rice krispy treat dyed purple with purple sprinkles on top.

purple rock candy

 Jelly beans!  We started with 5 bags of jelly beans and sorted out all of the purple ones and it wasn't quite enough so we got the blue ones out and still needed more, then we added the pink! 

 

Varies purple candies.

Before lunch we had the kids decorate crowns.  Blue king crowns for the boys and purple princess crowns for the girls.  

For lunch we had purple jam (bosenberry) and peanut butter sandwiches, purple grapes and gold fish.  To drink I put purple kool aid into washed out IBC cream soda bottles.  We cut the sandwiches into princess crown and slipper shapes.  All the kids seemed to eat pretty good.

All the CUTE kids in their purpliciuos (or blue) outfits! While I had them all sitting there on the couch we read the book Purplicious.  Then Paige opened presents.  She is one lucky girl.

Before cake and candy bar time we had the kids make little bead bracelets and play bingo.  I didn't get any pictures of them doing this because it was a little crazy with all of the beads and three year olds!

I think that Paige had a great time.  She seemed to enjoy all of her friends being there.  We did miss her friend Brooklyn though.  We will have to make it up some how.

The day before Paige's party she had her 3 year old check-up.  I just wanted to share of few of the stats and milestones.

She weighed in at 31 pounds and is  36 inches tall.  She hasn't grown much over the past year but neither the doctor nor I are worried because well I am not a tall person.

We get a little card at each appointment that has some milestones that we should expect for age three and some that we should within the next year.  One of the milestones that we should expect now is speaks so that words are understandable to a stranger!  HA!  I laughed when the doctor asked how her vocabulary is doing.  This girl can talk circles around just about anyone and she is pretty clear and can be understood most of the time.  Even though Paige is a chatter box we sure love hearing her speak and all of the interesting things that she has to say about the world around her.  Paige is now potty trained which has been a breeze compared to Jack.  We are thrilled that she is doing so well and we can be diaper free for a few months.  Paige loves her family very much and tells us all daily.  She is definitely our little princess, but don't call her that!  She loves her princess dolls and of course the color purple.  She likes to play with Jack and play outside with him.  We recently started a mommy and me tumbling class.  She has improved in just the two months that we have done it.  She can kind of sort of jump now, which is a huge improvement to her jumping before.  She loves to dance around the house and twirl and be a ballerina.  The ballerina in her makes my heart happy.  I am looking for a good ballet school to get her in.  I would love to see her dancing and I think right now she might enjoy it more than gymnastics.  We have noticed that with Paige the melt downs are more emotional and dramatic than with Jack.  It is easier for me to deal with than Aaron, I think that I get it more than he does.  We love our little Paigers so much and it is hard to believe that she is 3.  She is at such a fun age right now and I am excited to see her develop more over the next year. 

Disney On Ice

Last week we took the kids to see Disney On Ice.  Aaron had the idea that we should some place fun for dinner before hand.  We decided to go to the Mayan in Salt Lake.  It was Aaron and the kids first time there.  It is pretty fun.  The kids loved the watching the cliff divers and actually ate their food while Aaron and I could talk and also enjoy our meal.  So nice!

After dinner we went to the show.  We hadn't told the kids where we were going until we parked.  We had told them that if they wanted they could bring a costume to change into.  Once we told them what we were doing they were all for wearing their costumes.  Aaron was a little skeptical.  He thought it was a little weird for them to wear costumes, it didn't help that those we were parked next to were all wearing normal clothes.  I assured him that it was cool that they wore costumes and it would be fine.  And it was.  I would say that a quarter of the kids were wearing costumes, but about three quarters wished they were!  As we walked into the Arena and found our seats I could hear kids telling their parents to look at Buzz and Tinkerbell.  

During the show Jack was mesmerized.  Paige's attention came and went.  Overall it was so so so so fun.  I particularly enjoyed seeing Jack's face light up when a new character came out.  He just loved it.  Jack was pretty cute when the villains came out, he was giving them all dirty looks.  The really nice thing about a show like this one is that it is totally geared towards kids and so I was not stressed out trying to keep my kids quiet and not talk during the performance.  I think that was the best part.  Hearing my kids and the kids around me comments on what was going on.  We just had a great time.  Now we are even more anxious to take Jack and Paige to Disneyland.  They will be in for a huge surprise.  They have no idea how much better Disneyland is.  They thought Disney On Ice was great.  So I guess we need to start planning a trip again!  Hopefully this time we make it.

Here are some pictures, some may not be great because well it was dark and the lighting was not consistent.   

 A little something to help celebrate Paige's birthday. 

 

This was the sign that we parked in front (we were told to park there)  Aaron and I thought it was funny.  Rest assured our was not hit by a death ray from mars!

 

Paige did the best when she was eating the popcorn.  She called the arena a giant movie theater.  

The Sorcerer's Apprentice act was pretty cool.  The brooms came down from the ceiling.   

When toy story came out, the crown went crazy.  Including our little crowd.  Jack and Paige were super excited to see their favorite toy story characters.

One of the celebrations was Valentine's day.  We got to see all of the princesses with their princes'.  We had such a good time.  I can't wait to take them to Disneyland.

Yay for Me I am Three!!!

On Thursday March 10th Paige turned 3!!!! 

The morning started out a little hard for me.  I was still pretty bummed by the California trip cancellation.  It took me awhile to change my attitude so that Paige could have a great day!!!

I decided that since it was supposed to be a fairly nice day that we would head to Hogle Zoo.  The kids seemed excited about that idea.  Aaron had planned for us to not be there and was working from home so we needed to get out of the house so he could focus better. 

I also had the idea to take the kids this weekend to Disney On Ice, but since we had planned to be in Cali I forgot about it.  I remembered in the morning before heading to the zoo and also found a couple of 50% coupons for tickets.  The coupons were only good if you bought tickets at the box office in Salt Lake.  

We stopped by the Energy Solutions Arena before heading to the zoo.  I was hoping that they didn't have huge signs advertising Disney On Ice, and they didn't!  I want it to be a surprise for the kids.  Both kids had fallen asleep on the way down.  When we parked to buy tickets I asked Paige if she had to go potty (we are still in the stage of traveling with a potty in the car) and she said no.  We had a little walk to get to the box office, up lots of stairs.  While I was buying tickets Paige tells me that she has to go potty.  Great I think.  I ask the employee helping me if there is a bathroom that she can use.  He says no there is no public restroom close.  I then say well hopefully she can hold it until we find a bathroom.  Ok so I understand that you don't want people walking around downtown SLC coming in to use your bathroom, but seriously a three year old just learning how to control her pee?!?!  I kind of hoped that if she did have an accident that she let it go on their floor and I wasn't going to offer to clean it up!  We rush back to the car.  I had to carry Paige since she couldn't walk very fast and hold in her pee.  We get to the car and she makes it!!!  She went in the potty!  I was so happy and proud of her. 

Once at the zoo we had a great time.  You know how when you go to a place like the zoo they offer you a map?  Well I wasn't going to take it.  I have been to the Hogle zoo lots of times and felt that I knew my way around.  I took it anyway and handed it to Jack.  What a great thing for him to have!!!  He really enjoyed looking at the map and seeing where we are and what is coming next and if we take this path we will see this animal but if we take this path instead we can see these animals.  I need to remember that Jack likes to have order and a plan and know what is going on.  I may need to find kid friendly maps for road trips even to Salt Lake.  He was so much better behaved.  As long as he knows what is coming next he is much happier.  

When we were at the tiger exhibit we looked and looked and couldn't find any tigers.  Then Jack says well here's some tigers. 

When we went around to another exhibit we actually found the tiger.  He was asleep on top of the catwalk.

Paige was excited to see the Giraffes this time.  They were all inside so we had to go in the smelly building to see them.

We rode the carousel.  Jack actually got on one of the animals that moves up and down.  Usually he chooses a bench.

I tried to get a picture with Jack in the reflection of the mirror.  Its not what I had in mind, but it is still fun.

 
Paige chose a bench. 

That night when we got home we had pizzookies and ice cream.  I thought that this was brilliant idea because they are so yummy.  But really its not kid friendly.  Paige at least enjoyed the ice cream. 

 My big three year old.


I had such a wonderful day.  I really hope that Paige did too.  Spending some time with my kids was just what I needed.  I have two amazing kiddos and I couldn't be more happy or proud of them.

Happy Birthday Paige!!!!