Feeling Wicked?

Ever since my Sis in Law Andrea introduced me to the amazing music of Wicked (about 3-4 years ago) I have wanted to go. So for mothers day I told Stephen that all I wanted was a weekend away from being a mommy and a ticket to Wicked, not much to ask....right? Well being the great guy that he is I went to San Francisco with my mom, sister, and Sister in law Christa. The one rule for our trip was no kids allowed! We had a blast in San Francisco. We went to pier 39, China Town, Little Italy, and of course we did some shopping. Wicked was AMAZING and so much fun if you ever get the chance to go you should. I didn't bring my camera so I don't have pictures but here is one I stole from my sisters blog! It was a great last splurge before I am officially a mother of two!

A very happy Un-Birthday!

Because Stephen won't be here when Katie actually turns three next month we decided to have her big birthday party before the baby was born and before Stephen left. My mom and I spent HOURS making Katie's princess castle birthday cake which turned out pretty cute although, I have decided that cake decorating is also not a talent of mine so don't look to close! We had the party at the park and we played "pin the tale on the donkey" and we had a pinata. When we bought the pinata and brought it home I explained to Katie that the pretty pink and yellow flower (which she loved) was not going to be around forever. I explained the whole concept behind a pinata and she even helped me fill the pinata up with all the goodies. She seemed fine at home with the idea but once all the kids actually started to hit her beautiful flower she fell to pieces. I felt so bad! She was heart broken to think that her new flower was going to be destroyed. After some calming down and some reminding of all the candy on the inside of the pinata she finally came around and helped in the fun. Katie was such a lucky girl and got lots and lots of gifts from her family. She got some play makeup, a bowling set, a battery operated pet hamster, some awesome learning puzzles, a big ball that she can bounce on, a computer game and a few other things. I am so lucky to have the love and support of my family. Overall she had a great party. Our camera was acting up so we didn't get a lot of pictures of the event but here is what we have!

Hailey's Here

Talk about close in age this is my new niece Hailey. Hailey is my brother Russell's newest addition to his family! She is such a sweet happy little girl and I have happy visions of my little girl and this little girl being great friends and going to things like EFY together in the far future! I just had to post a little tribute to my new niece. I am so happy for Russell and Amber and Hailey's big brother Tyler!

We're Back!

No good excuses to offer for my lack of blogging other than life has seemed to be flying by us. Stephen's acceptance into school has made us very busy dealing with moving, apartment finding, financing, planning and basically trying to figure out how we are going to move across the country and have a baby and go to school all at the same time. It has been interesting because it seems like nothing has really happened in my small family for some time and now everything is happening at once! I am officially one week away from having this little girl join our family and we are very excited! Because I know I have a dead line I am going to be catching up the blog this week.

To catch up Katie, Stephen and I went camping about three weeks ago. We found the absolutely best camp ground. The camp ground had a nice grass area for the tent, the cleanest camp bathrooms I have ever been in, A great fire pit area, and nice hot showers...Okay due to our obvious circumstances we couldn't plan a good time to go so we improvised and went camping in the back yard! Honestly it was a ton of fun and one of the best camping trips that I have ever been on! We did everything you would want to do when you go camping. We played card games, told "scary" stories, made smores, and looked up at the stars. We spent two nights sleeping in the tent and we all had a blast especially Katie who loved "camping" out. Below are the pictures from oue little adventure.

Update...again!

I am obviously not doing well at updating the blog so every time I go to update it I have a lot to say...sorry! First of all the big news is that STEPHEN GOT INTO SCHOOL!!! This means we will literally be moving across the country. Stephen could not be more excited. He is so happy to have been accepted and I am super proud of him. I am excited for a new part to our lives and this crazy journey we will be starting but I am also very nervous. I am nervous about a lot of things but mostly about my ability to care for a three year old and a new born in a place where the only person I know is my husband who will be incredibly busy! I am also not thrilled about all the debt we will be incurring. Stephen tells me (almost daily) that it will be worth it in the long run and that we will be financially better off.... I hope he is right! The program is 27 months long. We don't really know where in the country we will end up for the last 12 months of that 27 months because that is when he will be doing his residency and it could be in a number of locations. The big dilemma now is that classes for Stephen start the same week of my due date. So it is unclear weather or not Stephen will be present for the baby's birth but hopefully it will all work out! I am so worried about Katie making this adjustment. Her entire world is about to be turned upside down and then shaken! Not only will she move away from her house, room, grandma and grandpa, Ellie (her cousin/best friend), many other cousins that she loves, her routine (like library and story time), but she will also be adjusting to a new baby sister and a dad who has gone MIA! I hope and pray that she will do okay during this difficult adjustment! Overall we feel very blessed and lucky that Stephen got accepted and it will be a great opportunity for our little family. I am going to post some random recent pictures. Stephen's birthday was yesterday and I simply can't believe how old we are getting. Katie also enjoyed a great St. Patrick's day where a mischievous leprechaun left green footprints all over her room and messed it up while she was asleep! He also left her some of his special Cereal (the kind mom hardly ever lets her have) and some candy! It is such a blast to have a child who believes in the magic of these holidays! I am also going to post some pictures of Katie helping her Daddy out in the yard. My parents recently re-landscapped their front yard and Steve and Katie were big helpers! I think that about covers everything sorry for being so so wordy!

update!

Katie: She is doing very well. She now knows all of her upper and lower case letters and most of the letter sounds. She is constantly begging me to do preschool and to play with her learning toys. She is super excited about being a big sister and is always asking questions about the baby and telling me all the wonderful things she is going to do with her little sister. I know she is going to be such a BIG helper when this baby comes. Katie is really just such a wonderful child and everyday I am thankful for her laughter and smile in my life.

Stephen: He has applied to AA school and has had one interview so far. We are excited at the prospect of this new adventure. We should be hearing back soon to see if he has been accepted to that school as well as if he will get any more interviews at the other schools he applied to. He is also currently volunteering at the children's hospital here in town. He gets to help do fun activities with the sick children who are there for serious health concerns. He really enjoys it so far and it has really made him appreciate how blessed we are to have a healthy happy child.

Becky: I am feeling very pregnant. This pregnancy seems to just be flying by! We got to have our 4th ultra sound the other day and it was so neat to see how this little girl is growing. This little girl (we still don't know what to name her) reminds me very much of when I was pregnant with Katie. She is very active and seems to almost jump around and do flips and turns. I feel more tired with this pregnancy then I remember feeling with Katie but that might be because I am now chasing after a two year old all day long! We could not feel more excited about having another little girl in our family. I recently just had a birthday and am feeling old. I know that 25 is not super old but it sounds old! Half way through my twenties...wow time sure does fly!

Okay well I think that about sums up everything going on in our small world. Sorry I haven't been the best at updating the blog recently. Here are some pictures of Katie at a "children's museum" that we took her to the other week. I would hardly call this a museum because it was so poorly ran and most of the toys and experiments were outdated and run down but Katie had fun regardless. I have been trying to find less expensive and yet fun activities to take katie to and this was one of them that I found online. I was a little disappointed with it. So if anyone out there has some awesome places to take young kids to please let me know! Thanks!

Katie-isms #5

Sorry, I know you might not think these are very funny but she sure cracks me up!


Katie accidentally bumped her elbow and started to cry due to the pain
Mommy said, "Oh honey I think you bumped your funny bone, I'm sorry."
Katie said through tears, "It's not funny mommy! It hurts!"


Driving in the car at night Katie asked while looking out the window, "Why is the moon following us? Do you think it wants to come inside the house too?"


While the sacrament is being passed Katie takes two pieces of bread and quickly shoves both in her mouth
Mommy said, "Katie how many pieces of bread are we supposed to take during the sacrament?"
Katie said, "Only one... but I'm two so I can take two!"
Who can argue with that kind of logic?!

Smart!

Obviously katie does not get her brains from me! This kid is so smart that at two years old I feel like she is already passing up mommy in some areas! I have been having a mommy and me preschool with Katie for a little while now where we work on letters and play games and do little crafts. To my amazement Katie could easily remember letters and now she knows all of the lower case letters in the alphabet! We are currently working on all of the letter sounds and the upper case letters and she is already about half way done with that too. I wish I could say it was my unbelievable ability and knowledge as a teacher that got her to this point but as Grandma Pehrson pointed out, "Katie would have learned this no matter who taught her because she is just so smart!" But anyway here is the video of Katie saying her lower case letters with daddy. Sorry about the quality it was shot with our camera not our video camera!


Here are just some silly picture of Katie with the valentines treat we made! I sure love my little Katie Bug!

This kid is driving me CRAZY!!

Warning: The following is a rant from a tired and haggled pregnant mother. Proceed with caution.

So Katie having mastered the unbelievable skill of getting herself dressed has now made my life a ton more difficult! Now you may be thinking, "She can get herself dressed shouldn't that make your life easier because now you don't have to get her dressed?" Ahh this kind of first time parenting thought process that I was delusional enough to believe as well is what has gotten me into this situation! The first thing Katie wants to do when she wakes up is get dressed. She wants to pick out her outfit and she does NOT want any form of help. So inevitably she comes back into the room wearing mismatched pajamas with a skirt on top of it that are almost ALL backwards and inside out! Not to mention that underwear to Katie is an accessory that she chooses to take along with her occasionally! I then proceed (with as much love and patience that it would amaze you) to tell her that she looks a little silly and that we should try and find something a little bit more suitable for the days activities. Then ensues a battle of wits and strength as Katie and I work together through screaming and tears (not all Katie's) to get her into clothing that I won't need to feel quite as embarrassed about her wearing in public. This often does not mean the clothing will match or that she will be warm enough given the weather but it is a compromise that we can both somewhat agree with. If you think this is the end of the problem think again! Then through out the course of the day Katie will spill the tiniest little drop of water on her shirt while washing her hands or she might "accidentally" spill her breakfast cereal all down herself. This will ensure that she needs to get changed again. We go through the same routine as listed above although this time I have a lot less patience! This continues multiple times during the day until I can feel wrinkles denting into my face! Nap time and bed time are no exceptions to this behavior. I lay katie down to sleep in one outfit and when she wakes up she is mysteriously in an entirely new outfit. Last night I went to check on Katie before I wondered off to bed and found her sleeping peacefully in her.... SWIM SUIT! That's right! I did laugh out loud when I saw her and I should have taken a picture but I just pulled the blankets up around her and let her continue to sleep. By the end of a day katie will have gone through multiple pairs of pants, shirts, underwear, socks, dress up clothes, sweaters, dresses, and skirts! I find all of these clothes (some dirty, some only worn for five minutes, others mearly pulled out as possible options) lying on the ground in piles on her floor. Then begins what I like to call the "shake it, look at it, smell it" routine. I go through the piles of clothes and do my upmost to determine if they are clean or dirty. Needless to say I am now doing more laundry for Katie then when she was a newborn and I am not kidding. I remember (back before I had kids) when I used to see a child dressed in pajamas or not matching or in some ridiculous outfit at the store and I would think, "Oh I will NEVER allow my child to look like that! Good mothers dress their children in cute perfect outfits!" Oh how foolish I was! Yet another lesson from parenting. So if you happen to come across my child in any setting and she looks umm...silly please please understand that she could look a lot worse! Sometimes some battles (especially with two year olds) are not worth fighting to the death instead we meet half way!

Okay if anyone made it through that crazy long rant I apologize but I needed a place to vent! Thanks for listening or rather reading.

It's a...

GIRL! I know that most of you have probably already heard because we have known for three weeks now but I haven't officially posted it on the blog. It is a girl and after three different ultra sound technicians all confirmed it we are pretty certain. So my guess was wrong but we couldn't be happier about another sweet girl in our family. Katie said she wanted it to be a little sister and it looks like she got her way. So poor Stephen will be up to his elbows in princess clothes, make up, pink, and more and more bows! Stephen is pretty happy about it too though in all honesty. He is such a good daddy to his little princess. Now all we need to do is pick out a name. We have some in the running but we haven't nailed any down as of yet. So any suggestions are welcome! We feel so blessed and are very excited for this new little one to join in our happy family!