I'M EXHAUSTED

Two things you'll notice about these pictures: 1. They are AGAIN wearing their Easter Dresses cause they love them soooo much. (Yes, my children own more then one dress each) 2. There are 2 cake's involved and Mia loves to stick her finger in them to eat the icing

This has been the longest month of my life. With Mia's Birthday, Easter, Kalea's Birthday, pregnancy, and my church calling... I have felt a little more stressed, run down, exhausted.... need I go on? Needless to say I am happy this month is over and April begins with (hopefully) warm weather and lots of out door play time where I can relax a little.


We decided that since Kalea's birthday and Mia's birthdays are so close together that we'd do a joint "party" right smack in the middle of the 2. It was a fun time with my parents and some close friends that came by. Christian was determined that I DIDN'T spend a lot of money for this birthday. But I don't think anyone told my folks. They came and boy did they deliver. The girls got some really cool stuff from Grandma and Grandpa Alo (and Great Grandma and Grandpa Allen). The girls weren't exactly feeling camera happy (I think still tired from a sleep over at Aunt Cherre's house from Friday but that's another paragraph) but we got some cute pictures. We also watched Enchanted as a family which Kalea LOVES... as do I ... it's one of my favorites.


Since I already mentioned the sleep over... I'll elaborate. It was AMAZING. Oh... and I think the girls had a good time too. Cherre picked them up around 3pm. And we didn't get any crying phone calls of sad voices AT ALL. Christian and I were able to go out on a DATE. Yes, you heard me right. An actual date. And one where we didn't feel rushed to relieve a babysitter. We went out to eat and then got milk shakes afterwards.... AND THEN.... we rented a movie. It was awesome. The next morning I went and got a massage and bought a couple of new shirts that my fat belly can fit into. It was a surreal weekend to say the least. I'm not used to being so "alone". I told Christian multiple times throughout the evening that I was going thru withdrawal. I guess that's what being a full time mom is all about. Feeling empty without your children.


Oh... guess who's getting a new bathroom floor!! We are! Christian just started tiling our bathroom. I'm very excited. We've had no floor... and I do mean NO FLOOR.... for a year now. We had the sub floor and a piece of old carpet in the middle. Christian got going Friday after the girls left for a few hours. I asked him if it was hard... and he said "It sucks more then I thought it would". So hopefully that motivates him to finish soon so he can move on to something that sucks less. He's a regular Bob Vila.

*a work in progress*

HERE'S A FEW...

My sister-in-law Alice was nice enough to email me some pictures of the Easter egg hunt at the Martin's on Saturday. The girls had a really good time. Mia was really excited to see her cousin Kate. Christian took Kalea with the older group of kids (4-7 year olds) to hunt for eggs. I took Mia with the younger kids (1-3 year olds). Mia wasn't entirely interested in getting eggs even though she knew that there was candy inside. She just wanted to go play. Afterwards, we had a family picnic and got to relax a little bit and enjoy the weather. It was 75 degrees that day! It was awesome. We had a really good time!

PICTURE TIME!

I took the girls to JCPenney's to get their pictures taken last week. They did really well! Mia actually cooperated a little more then Kalea did. Kalea tried to hold back a smile the whole time. Here are some of the pictures. Also, we had a really eventful weekend with Easter Activities. Unfortunately, I left my camera at the Simpson's house in Garner so it'll be a little while before I can post pictures of this weekend.

JUST BEFORE CHURCH...

We took some pictures of the girls before church today. You can tell Kalea loves the camera.

GUESS WHO'S 2

Mia turned 2 today! She's getting to be such a big girl. And for the icing on the cake.... she stayed in Nursery the WHOLE TIME! Today has been wonderful!

RANDOM THOUGHTS...

Here's a picture of my Belly at 16 weeks.

I've decided that I definitely prefer Baking over Cooking. Cooking feels more like an obligation while Baking is more of a creative expression with food. Plus anything baked is just way Yummier. Maybe it's just my screwed up way of thinking but I'd much rather bake cookies, muffins, any kind of sweet bread then make dinner. But of course you can't feed your family on junk food. So I better start loving cooking because it is much more of a necessity.

I've also realized that my pants are getting tight. So maybe baking isn't the way to go. Granted I'm pregnant, but that's no excuse! :) Today was my first day of trying to squeeeeze into pants that were about to BUST! What a milestone!... One I'd like to skip. How nice would it be if your waist, butt, and hips were to stay the same while the belly just grew. No such luck. So what did I do? I kept that button quietly unbuttoned and let everyone think that my skinny behind can still fit in them. Last week I went to the Doctor's for my monthly check up and a nurse weighed me in at a whopping 100lbs. I was waiting for her to say, "Lay off the baking." Instead she looked at me a little disgusted and had nothing to say to me for the rest of our 10 minutes together. If she knew that weighing triple digits is a challenge for me. Maybe next time I'll give her a heart to heart explanation. I'm sure she'll really care.

I've also been cleaning like CRAZY. I don't know if it's because Spring is coming and I'm SUPER excited or if I'm nesting already. But I'm ready for things to be Spotless! Kalea likes to be a my little helper but I've noticed Mia gets very mad when I try to clean up her toys. It's like she's got them EXACTLY WHERE SHE WANTS THEM. Too bad they're NOT where I want them. Her new favorite phrase to me is, "Shhh! Quiet!" For some reason she reserves that phrase only for me. And needless to say, Christian does NOT like that. She gets in trouble every time and yet she constantly decides to tell me when she thinks I'm talking too much. Ahhh... the joys of a 2 year old. I'm sure it'll only get better in her teenager years. On the plus side, she did go to Nursery on Sunday without much fuss. Once she realized I wasn't going to hold her she went and played. The only downside was that apparently some kid gagged and threw up and chaos of course erupted throughout the kids and she had to come back to us. But at least she knows she's losing the fight against nursery and has given in to going. Hopefully next week will last longer then 25 minutes.

I've also realized how much I LOVE my husband. I'm a very lucky girl to have him. And I'm sure this is going to embarrass him. I love being around him. We have so much fun when we're together. Life is good:) He makes me happy and I hope I do the same for him. Even though life can be such a struggle, I wouldn't want to do it with anybody else. I feel like he truly completes me as a person. I love being his wife (not so much his cook since I have A LOT to live up to). He's such a good dad and a really wonderful companion. I feel truly lucky to have him in my life and to be able to raise our daughters together. LOVE YOU CHRISTIAN!