Happy Humpday!

A fabulous Wednesday to you all!   Lots of reasons to be happy today!

One of a million beach pictures.  Play by play to come.  And yes, Van is pantsless.  He was wearing jeans and it got hot so we decided to walk back from the park in the water.  And a wave knocked him down.  Good thing I took the pants off. 

• I'm happy because the beach last week was just what we needed.  And a whole Saturday with dad on the beach too.  Happy mom.  Happy kids. 
• I'm happy because Emery had this conversation with her dad last night on the phone.  E: "Why do you have to go to Reno?"  A: "Because my boss needs me to work here."  E: "Can't you ask your boss for a different work?"  And then this morning she followed up and asked him if he'd asked his boss yet.  For different work.  So cute.  She loves her dad. 
• I'm happy because Van is still on the potty training bandwagon... though he's had more accidents in 2 days than in a whole week at the beach.  And he doesn't have accidents when we're out.  Only when we're home.  Weird?  Except for when he jumped ship tonight - he was sitting on top of the train table.  He was looking a little uncomfortable so I asked him if he needed to poop.  He said no.  Then he pooped on the train table.  Luckily he finished in the potty or I'm not sure what kind of positive potty reinforcement I could have come up with.  The train table?  When I just asked him?  So busted.  Cute little turkey.  

  

  Little dude in big boy undies
  

• I'm happy because today is over.  I'm tired today.  I'm going to go to bed early. 

Happy Humpday!

What a great Wednesday!  I'm happy because...

• We saw our sweet baby girl via ultrasound yesterday.  She's perfect.  We are so blessed.  And she has a perfect little profile with a ski jump nose that looks similar to Emery's profile.  I can't wait to meet her!  15.5 more weeks! 
• I am potty training Van and it's going great!  It's actually really fun to potty train him.  That is something I thought I'd never say after potty training Emery.  That was a nightmare.  Wow.
• I spent today playing somewhere beautiful with my kids.  They are so cute and so much fun.  It is so fun to be able to take a break from the rest of life and just focus on my most important job ALL day.  
• I get to go to the temple in the morning.  Ahhh.
• My hubby ate some of his favorite foods today.  That makes me happy.  And I ate the most delicious salad for lunch.  I think I could eat it every day.  Accept for the 2 days this week I'll likely eat this really good grilled cheese and some greasy Mexican food.  Girl cannot live on salad alone, right? 

Hope your Wednesday was wonderful!!  

Happy Humpday!

Today I'm happy because...

• the next holiday doesn't revolve around candy.  Thank goodness for St. Patrick's Day.

  

  2-year olds shouldn't eat green Fun Dip.  Note to self.  Emery ate pink.  Much better choice.

• I made room in my closet today so that my maternity wardrobe is hanging up and ready for use (and not sitting in a ridiculous pile on the top shelf...).  It's time to embrace the belly. 

  

  23 1/2 weeks

• my style has come a long way.  Here's my living room when we 1st moved in.  And then now.  Even though this room will always be "incomplete" in my head (its missing the fabulous yellow curtains, board and batten wall, etc. that I had planned), at some point you have to stop decorating a 3 bedroom house when you want as many kids as we do.  A fireplace redo is still in the works, though! 
• my dining room table that I redid looks totally amazing.  I'm so happy with the huge ugly $25 table to gorgeous table with style transformation. 
• when Aaron called as I was putting the kids to bed they were sitting on each other under this.  And their response to dad's "how are you?" inquiry was "We're hyper, giggle giggle giggle..."  Well said, Em.  

  

  Yes, Van is naked under the plastic tote.  He took his diaper off at 1pm and went naked the rest of the day.  He went poop and pee in the potty every time he needed to go, though!  Good boy!

Happy Love Day!

Confession: In the past I've been kind of a holiday party pooper (I'm talking the little holidays like Valentines or St. Patricks... I'm festive at Christmas, people!).  Or at least did not much of anything to make it special.  Well, my kids are getting old enough that I needed to do something about it.  So we tried to make Valentines Day special around here this time around.

Success!!  Here's what we did:

• played Valentines Day games (hosted by Julie - thanks!) last night
• made a tiny heart-shaped pies for FHE treat last night
• they had Valentines from mom and dad when they got up
• had pink heart-shaped pancakes and heart-shaped scrambled eggs for breakfast

  

  And breakfast is upside down.... hmm....

• made heart-shaped muffins and delivered them with Valentines Emery wrote on to our family and a couple of friends



Van and Uncle Taylor



Em and Aunt Chelsey



Van took a million silly pics of his mom at lunch

• met dad for lunch at In-N-Out to have lunch with Aunt Chelsey, Uncle Taylor and baby Diesel
• went on a bike ride to deliver Valentines to Great Grandma and Grandpa
• had heart-shaped grilled sandwiches w/ tomato soup for dinner-which Emery declared the best dinner I've ever made. I'm either losing my touch or she's bored of mom's busy season cooking strike. 

And just a quick note to my sweet Valentine who crawled in bed at 12:45 this morning.  You are the best man a girl could ever ask for.  Always thinking of your family 1st... even when you work 14 hour days.  So glad you're mine forever. 

And my cute hubby did the 12 days of Valentines day for me in the midst of all of this madness.  If you know us we aren't exactly gift-givers, so this was a fun and special treat!  Lots of my favorite treats, a CD of songs that remind him of me, cupcake liners (which I'm too cheap to buy but always want), a gift card to buy maternity clothes, a Cafe Rio gift card and even a new piece of bling!  You like my new ring?  My real wedding ring is too big for me much of the time so this (very inexpensive, lest you think the Wilkinsons aren't the Wilkinsons anymore) CZ beauty will reside on my finger during times of skinny fingers.  :)  I LOVE it!  :)  And it doesn't fall off.  Always a plus.  Oh, and flowers today.  I love fresh flowers on my table!

Hope you had a very Happy Valentines Day full of LOTS of LOVE!!!  

Happy Thursday?

What?  Thursdays can be happy, too!!  It's been a busy week.  Aaron-less weeks are always lots better when they are busy!  I'm happy because....

• ...my week has been so busy with fun things!  Girls Night Out for Relief Society.  Its not terribly often that I laugh that hard.  I thought I might burst.  Presidency Meeting.  Always so uplifting and fun.  Love those ladies.  And Book Club tonight.  We read Romancing Miss Bronte for this month.  It was wonderful.  
• ...my kids BIKED today!  Like, really biked!  Emery is a non-aggressive biker and even though Van is aggressive sometimes he likes to opt for the trike even though he can ride the bike.  Van rode his at the park for an hour and then they both rode to a friend's house and back.  So fun.  They are getting so big.  I'm having visions of nursing this little baby girl in a camping chair in my driveway watching the other two bike around my culdesac.  How old am I?  My kids BIKE!  Whoa. See videos. 
• ... locking my keys (and my son) in my car turned into the best day of Van's life.  Apparently if you lock a kid in the car it turns into an "emergency" of sorts and the fire department comes to break you into your car.  Van got to climb inside their truck.  And they turned on the lights and sirens and honked before they left.  Now he makes noises like a siren whenever he hears one. 

  

  Thanks, Henderson Fire Dept!
  

• ...we tried potty training for a day.  As long as he's naked and we're home he's 100% in the potty.  Pee and poop.  Now I just have to stay home for 3 days to help him get the hang of it permanently.  If you know me, you know that's a big commitment.  I'm going to have to UNschedule to do it.  Yikes.  I'm really working on slowing down before this new baby comes, I promise.

  

  Caught him peeing behind a bench outside.  Awesome. 
  

  
• ...I finally got this little girl signed up for a real dance class.  Tap and ballet.  With Jayne of course.  They are adorable and she's actually getting the hang of it.  It's so cute and she loves it.
• ...I got to go on a date with my hubby last weekend compliments of Uncle D (aka Deloitte).  Aaron is a "buddy" to one of the interns and the company paid for us to take he and his wife out.  We ate at Chili's and then played laser tag.  The 4 of us wasted (I mean WASTED - 1900+ points to less than 500 points) a team of seven 15-year-old boys dressed in black.  And the pregnant girl got 2nd overall.  You should have seen the dad's face who was with the boys.  I didn't know I could get so much joy out of beating 15-year-olds at laser tag, but it was seriously fun.  And when I went to pick up the kids, the little Royals looked like this at Grandma and Pa's.  Spoiled. 
• ...I think my kids are starting to play better together.  They normally don't play together.  She's really girly.  And he's really.... destructive.  And makes a lot of truck noises.  Princesses don't make truck noises.  But put them in the living room with a big pile of pillows, in the sand box or on their bikes and they are really starting to play together.  It's warming their mommy's heart. 
• ....I got my hair done.  Whew. 
• ...I have the best parents in the world.  And on top of it they adore my kids.  And my kids adore them. 

Sorry it's so long!!  I missed last week!