Life has been busy, chaotic and good. We have not had much time for rest with changes at camp, and just a really busy calendar of events, birthdays (which are always so much fun!), homeschool conference, our anniversary, easter, appointments and now the girls are enrolled in swimming lessons for spring. . . . the list goes on and on :) It will be nice when we have a few days to ourselves at home, but there always seems to be a host of non-work related things to do here too, lol!! The weather has been so beautiful, it has been a joy to spend as much time outside as we have! The girls thoroughly enjoy playing in the outdoors especially riding their bikes! Inside things are coming along nicely, we've got the crib set up and are waiting for furniture that my dad is making for our baby's room. Speaking of our baby, just recently I let it slip to my family that our newest addition to our family is going to be a girl!!! And so now we are telling everyone we see (and meet!) that we are having a girl! Finding out happened kinda by accident, we went to the ultrasound appt and I told him that I did not want to know the gender (since I knew she was a boy anyways!) But if there were any serious health problems with the baby, then I wanted to know. I could tell he thought that was a bit weird, but agreed anyways. So as the appointment went along, I knew when he knew. He told me he got a clear look and was certain of what we are having. Already my curiosity was peaked, but since Trev and I decided not to find out, I was determined not to cave in. At the end of the appointment, Trev was allowed in and the tech was having a very hard time getting a certain angle of the heart. He told us that if it was not the heart he would not need to try and get it, but the heart, he said is really important to get the pictures. So we tried everything from rolling over, standing, going to the bathroom to get the baby to move, but to no avail! I could tell he was getting a little tired of trying and he said to me, "she won't turn over". Well I was done after that, he said "she" and my curiosity lost control. So I spent about 5 minutes trying to convince Trev we should know, lol!! In the end he saw no reason why we shouldn't. So we told the tech we'd like to know and he drew the symbol out for us to see. Trev and I knew the symbol meant something but in that moment, neither of us knew which one it was!!! The tech was hilariously dumbfounded at our ignorance and said, "it's a girl!!" I was so shocked because, in my mind, there was no way this baby could be a girl! It took me about half an hour to actually believe it and then at least two weeks till it sank in.
After finding out Trev and I decided to keep it a secret from our families because I had made no secret of my belief she was a boy and thought they'd be pleasantly surprised when she arrives. It worked for two months and then while chatting with my mom, sister and bro's girlfriend, I was talking about "the baby" and said "she". They wouldn't have known, except I completely broke down into tears instantly and so they knew then, lol!! I must say, it's much easier to talk about 'her', instead of mentally reminding myself all the time to say "the baby"!! So, yes we are having another girl and are very excited about it! The girls love talking about when their sister comes and how things will be (I just hope it's not too much of a shock). But they are so excited to be Big Sisters to another little sister!!

This pregnancy, I have been soooo tired and often need a nap to make thru the day without being terribly grumpy. Natasha has past the nap stage, but every once in a while she gets sleepy and this day, she came up and curled up around her baby sister and fell asleep despite being kicked repeatedly at first, lol!!



Here is Chloe riding her bike, we cannot keep her off of it! As you can see it looks a bit small, but until her big girl mountain bike arrives it is doing just fine and she is soooo fast on it, it is a workout to keep up with her! Lol!!

At the end of March, Trev and I celebrated our 7th anniversary and we took a very nice 3 night stay in Grand Forks on our own while the girls went to the farm at Grama and Papa Wilsons, where they had such a great time! It is calving season and so they got to see new calves each day, they are pretty cute! We joined them for a few more nights after Grand Forks and had a wonderful and relaxing time. It was so nice we even roasted marshmellows and had smores!





Here is Goober on her new bike which she loves to ride! She will be outside for an hour or two just riding around on it up and down the road in front of our house! She's learned to use the brakes and steer well too!

We have been so incredibly busy Jan and Feb, it feels like we haven't had a break at all! With groups and then mother/daughter camp, and for some reason our calendar for march is just FULL with lots of fun stuff like visitors, prego pics, a nephews dedication, another nephews birthday, our anniversary trip to Grand Forks (YAY!!! with much shopping at Target lol!) And Tomorrow Trev heads out to Montana with a friend to pick up the new camp ski boat!! There is much excitement over it, LOL!!
Also with the weather being so beautiful, playing outside is the thing to do out here!!! The girls have had so much fun playing and I'm convinced that Chloe could live outdoors, and at the moment sees homeschool as the thing that is keeping her from the great outdoors :) But she's doing really well with it and then basically spends the entire afternoon outside! Now with two more kids at camp playing outside has been great!



So, our latest and greatest thing right now is the loft bed Trev made to go over her (now Goobers) twin sized bed! He's been working on it for a couple of months and figures he's put about 30 hours into it! It turned out great!! He cut the ladder into one end and made windows for each end! It's such a fun play place now! The girls are so excited about it and Chloe keeps asking if she can play up there :) (At least until the novelty wears off, lol!!) Their room seems so much bigger and we have fit almost all the toys we've wanted to in there. Now we just need to organize and set up the nursery :) Which we will do closer to May, for now it's so nice to have the extra space :D

Snowman Frenzy

Yesterday was our last day with above 0 temps and so all of us full time staff who were still out here decided to have a snowman building frenzy!! What fun!! Chloe rolled a pretty huge ball for her size, Andrew had to lift it on to the bottom one!Even Goober got into rolling a ball :)
Andrew also decided to make a super-sized snowman and with the help of the full time guys he stands almost 9 and a half feet tall! Trev brought the tractor in to lift up the middle and top and Ben and Andrew were the lucky guys who rode the bucket up to steady and shape it! Everyone helped a little bit with our Giant Snowman. We had such a blast!!

The snowman making ended with a huge snowball fight and even the kids got into it! Here's Chloe and Anika chasing after someone, I think it was Ben :)

January

We had a great start into the new year with friends and family!! And considering the weather has been so warm so far, the kids have enjoyed many adventures outside! One adventure we're hoping is over is the return of the wolf. . . . and the latest was on our deck looking into our front window, just a little scary! But also a very unique experience. We are cautious and won't take any foolish chances, but seeing a wolf has been thrilling for our kids too. Shawn Enns shot one a couple weeks ago and the kids were so excited to see it's body (it did NOT look grotesque or bloody)!

Chloe continues to get better at skating and loves doing it! We've started Homeschooling Chloe, she is learning so quick and we're starting to get a groove with what works and what doesn't, so hopefully by Grade 1 next year, we will know more what to expect and what works! One of my favorite things she does is we learned the continents to the tune of "Do you know the Muffin Man?" But it's "Do you know your Continents?" And hearing her singing it for fun all the time is great. Even Goober knows all the words to that song now! She is drawing great pictures with people, houses and snowmen! I love seeing her pictures!
With the weather being so nice, Natasha will play outside for about an hour, which for her is a REALLY long time and she has a blast just puttering around, climbing and their latest is taking their blue disc and sliding down our front steps :)I've also put up a picture of her eating soup (with adorable angel wings) and the reason this is so significant is that we have struggled with getting her to eat for so long, and after many unsuccessful attempts at getting her to eat, we took some great advice and just left her alone with whatever food was for that meal on her plate. We didn't argue or make her take any bites and she has gradually started eating on her own. Soup was something she wouldn't even touch and she finished her whole bowl! So this picture is pretty special!
Our baby is growing and gets more active as time goes on, I love feeling the movement! We just had our ultrasound done this past thursday and just seeing all the parts of the baby and seeing movement was wonderful! During the ultrasound, our baby refused to turn so the tech could get a picture of the right side of the heart, he tried for a long time and there was nothing doing! Which means there's a possibility I could go for another one if my Dr feels it's necessary to get that angle, and for me, I'm excited at the prospect of seeing the baby again! But we'll just have to wait to find out. The nursery is coming together in my head, and we also had a family member give us an awesome fire engine red, low, wide chair upholstered in crushed velvet and it fits with the nursery decor perfectly!!! Already Chloe and Natasha claimed it as their reading chair, it's wide enough for three kids to sit on it and low enough that it's not a big climb! I'm so stoked about that :) We just need to pick paint for the walls and once that's done we can start setting it all up! It's going to be so fun to see it transform from the girls room - playroom - nursery. Sometimes it's still hard to believe that we're having another baby. . . . .but what a joy it's bringing. I'm hoping it won't be long before Chloe and Natasha can feel the baby moving. They've heard the baby's heartbeat at at regular Dr's appt, and the blips of when the baby moved. . .they thought it was so funny, which made me laugh and then there was no hope of hearing the heartbeat after that! I really want them to feel like their a part of this pregnancy and that it's special for them too! Let's just hope at the next appt, I won't laugh :)We'll see. . . :D