I haven't figured out how to post comments on my own original posts yet, and just realized I made a mistake. The need to put up new pics of kids isn't a "bi-annual" thing, more like a semi-annual. (More than once a year) So when you get down to there. That's what my intent really was, and if anyone else knows blogger well, can you edit previous posts or add to them? It just seems silly to have to make a new post after the fact of the original one, lol!

So for some reason, in my haste, I missed a couple pics I wanted up! So here they are!!

Maternity Photos!!!

I am SOOOOOOO excited to post these pictures of our maternity photo shoot my amazing friend Nancy did for us. We did them near the end of march at my 6 month mark. We were armed with skittles and slurpees to bribe our girls into taking a million pictures, lol!! It worked! They were definately VERY 'distractedly' happy (or on a sugar fix), but they did really great and with Nancy's talents, there isn't a picture we don't like! Trouble is there's 155 to choose from and I don't think our bandwidth will allow me to post them all.

We started with the family pictures, it was so much fun! Goobers expression was like this in many pictures. It's her smile she gives when she is asked to smile! It's funny how kids have a 'cheese' smile and don't quite get we are wanting the genuine one. However, I love their expressions and they make GREAT memories!!

Trev and I have not had any good pictures of the two of us in such a long, long time and I am just so excited that we have so many now of just the two of us!





This is one of my most favorites!!! I love the little pink accents to make it girly!!


We did some with just the girls and I. I just love how they turned out! I was really impressed with how well Chloe and Natasha did listening and doing what Nancy wanted of them, without complaint!





Nancy also put together some collages for us. She went above and beyond what was needed and I am sooo appreciative. Everything is so beautiful!




And finally we also wanted pics of just our girls to update their frames at home and update the ones for grandparents. It's so nice to have current pictures, and since kids change so much so fast, it's pretty much a guarantee to have to update them bi-annually, at least!!

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