Baking with Mom

Joshua and I baked some cookies on the is beautiful, snowy day.  He loves to get up on the chair and "help" me.  Sometimes when I am cooking he will try pushing the chair over to the counter while saying, "help." 

Check out his very own mixer that he got from my sisters which is perfect because he LOVES my mixer.  One day I put it on the counter next to mine and he thought that was the coolest thing!

 

Adding his secret ingredient...air.

 

He even got his very first, very small taste, of cookie dough.  He couldn't wait for a spoon.

 

He liked it of course.  Much better than that flour he wanted to eat!  Maybe one day I will actually let him eat a cookie...maybe ;)

 

Baking some imaginary cookies while ours bake. 

 

 

Heart Day

I told Joshua that heart day was coming up and ever since then every time he sees a heart he says, "heart day." It is so cute sounding. 

We made Rice Crispy Treat Hersey Kisses for family http://pinterest.com/pin/273171533618879366/  Joshua handed them out to everyone at our Valentine's Day dinner on Tuesday with Daniel's family and then we delivered them to my family on Valentine's Day.  It was so cute seeing him pass out every one's treats.   
Truth be told I really do like Valentine's Day.  Of course, I think love should be celebrated all throughout the year but it is fun to have a special day with fun traditions, lots of hearts, pink and red, and eating of good food.  And speaking of traditions, I love traditions and I love the idea of having simple family traditions for holidays and other special days.   This year we started our heart day traditions that I hope will continue as our family grows. 

We started the morning with strawberry pancakes, topped with strawberry syrup and of course they were in the shape of hearts.

Checking on breakfast.

Digging in.  He was saying, "Whoa!"

 

I bet it's kinda hard to bite into a pancake like this without your two front teeth.  ;)

 

Opening a Valentine's Card from Amah and Papa.

 

 

 

He loved the card!  He called it a book.

 

For lunch my smallest Valentine and I went on a date.  

Doesn't he look so excited to be my date?  

Loves mac n cheese! 

 

On the bottom of our dishes he discovered the stamp that says where the dishes are made.  He thinks the circle is a ball.  Now he has to check underneath every dish he eats off to see if it too has a ball on the bottom.

 

For dinner we made heart shaped pizzas.



Rolling out our dough.  This was his favorite part next to taste testing the toppings.  

 

Sprinkling on the cheese. 

Gotta make sure it isn't poison.  

 

Valentine's Day wouldn't be complete without dessert.  We made frozen Greek yogurt heart drops (thank you Pintrest!).  Super easy, super delish, and good for ya!  Would be nice for a teething baby.

"Are you sure I can eat these Dad?" 

"Well okay, if you say so." 

"BUURRR, these things are cold!"

 

After we put our little Valentine to bed my biggest Valentine and I celebrated with chocolate fondue, fruit, a massage for the pregnant Valentine and a new TV series, Touch (not sure what we think of Touch yet).  A fun night indeed!

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

Baby girl has a name and a nusery

How we chose the name Kayla Grace...

Since before I was pregnant Daniel and I just knew that our next one was going to be a boy.  I think it is because having a boy is all we knew.  We already had a boy so why wouldn't we have another boy.  Good logic, huh?!  We also knew for a very long time that if we did have another boy we were going to name him Caleb. Two days after finding out I was pregnant our pastor did a sermon on Caleb that really spoke to us.  Whenever we hear the story of Joshua and Caleb it is always focused on Joshua, never Caleb. Daniel felt like that was confirmation for our boy name and for me it was just a reminder that God was going to bring me through this pregnancy with a healthy baby at the end.  As most women do I couldn't help but worry about the baby with all the what ifs but I just felt God was using this sermon to tell me that just like Joshua and Caleb, he brought me to the mountain and he was surely going to bring me THROUGH it as well. 

The day we found out we were having a girl we were totally stumped on baby names.  We looked at our list of baby names and just couldn't decide on a name.  There were a few we both liked but none that we both loved.  I went to bed a little frustrated while Daniel stayed up a little while longer looking at names online.  While I was laying in bed I was going crazy just thinking of names.  I was driving myself craaazzzzzy.  I finally gave up and prayed that God would give us both a name for our little girl.  That night I woke up in the middle of the night with the name Kayla in my mind and I thought, "Wow, that is pretty."  Then I realized how similar it was to Caleb.  I woke up through out the night and just kept thinking about how pretty Kayla was. 

The next morning I called Daniel at work so excited to tell him about Kayla.  When I asked, "What do you think about Kayla?" He just kept asking, "Are you serious?"  He said that he came across that name in his search the night before, really liked it and added it to the list to tell me about it later.  He thought I saw the list and was playing a joke on him but I surely was not.

We both couldn't believe how we went from being totally discouraged with finding a name to being given such a beautiful name from the Lord.

So from that moment on we knew that our sweet girl was to be named Kayla. 

As far as Grace goes, we both just really like that middle name.  I like it so much that I told Daniel that I am not opposed to middle naming all our girls Grace. 

Here are some pictures of her nursery...

Before Daniel left for Basic Training while we were dating we went to Build A Bear and both made military bears.  One sits on a shelf Joshua's room and the other bear is the one you see on Kayla's dresser.  We can't wait to someday tell them all about how Daddy was in the military. 

 

If you look closely you will see a football bucket next to the chair. It has some of Joshua's books. Because he loves to look at books I put a basket of books in all the rooms he frequents. He spends a lot of time in Kayla's room helping me organize things. He also goes in there and just plays by himself a lot. I love peeking in on him just reading in his baby sisters room. I cant wait for him to meet her!
 

We got this crib for $25 from a garage sale before I was even pregnant.  It is in PERFECT condition and when I asked the guy how much he answered clueless saying, "I don't know, $20, $25."  I told Daniel that we HAD to get it.  It was exactly what we wanted, in perfect condition, and super cheap.  I knew we would eventually use it ;)  I told Daniel that we had to wait until we got pregnant before putting it up.  That would be just weird to have a crib set up and not be pregnant.  I think he set it up within a few days after my first ultrasound around 7 weeks.  Yep, we were just a bit excited :)

This is my most favorite thing in her nursery. It is a framed finger painting from her big brother. So sweet!

We can't wait to hold you Kayla Grace!

 



Pack your bags...

...is music to my ears. 

Last Wednesday night Daniel came home and told me to pack my bags because he had a hotel booked for us Thursday night in the Springs and his parents were going to take Joshua for the night. 

He thought we both could use one last relaxing night away just the two of us before our sweet girl arrives.

Thursday he got off work early, we took Joshua over to his parents house and then we were off to a nice dinner. 

That night we watched a movie in our hotel bed while enjoying or own pint of ice cream! LOL, don't judge, it was amazing ;)

The next day we enjoyed a delicious hot breakfast at the hotel.  This was by far the best breakfast I have ever had from a hotel.  A week later and I am still sad that I only had one fruit and whipped cream topped waffle.  That was one tasty waffle.

After breakfast we went to the Focus on the Family Welcome Center.  This was the first time for both of us and we were quit impressed.  What a neat place!  We can't wait until Joshua is a little older to enjoy all their fun play areas. 

Then we headed to the spa where Daniel booked us couples massages. 

After our massages we went and did one of my favorite things which is eat sushi!

Then we were off to pick up the boy.  But not without first stopping and getting some ice cream from one of our favorite shops...Freddy's. 

Since this was more of a relaxing getaway I didn't take any pictures except for this one
 

It cracks me up that this is the only picture that I took. 

 

Getting away with just the two of us is so refreshing.  It is so nice to not have any parental duties, to just relax and talk, and do what we want to do when we want to do it.  I think breaks make us better spouses and parents. At the same time I would be lying if I said we didn't talk about Joshua while we are a way from him.  We talk about him a lot, laugh at his funny ways, and get giddy when we receive text pictures of what he is up to.  We love going to pick him up afterwards too. 

 

We are so thankful for Joshua's grandparents who take such good care of him and allow us some time to refresh.  

I am thankful for a husband who takes the time to invest in our marriage and for the great surprise he gave me.