She did it!

Evie filled up her potty chart! She was so excited to go pick out a balloon. I love that 2, almost 3 year olds are content with the simplest things!

She picked out a purple star balloon and yes, she did in fact dress herself today, and no, I didn't care. I never thought I would be a mother that would let her child go out of the house totally mismatching - but I think it's kind of endearing :) The things you learn to let go of when you become a mommy :)

She wanted me to take a picture of her with her "popcorn." She has quite the imagination. All night in the tub I could hear her talking about making her popcorn and how good it was. Then she said: "take a picture with me and my popcorn, mom! Say cheese, popcorn!" She is so funny and I just love her spunky little personality! I made another 12 squares for her to fill in on her potty chart, only this time she will get an ice cream cone once she is finished!! She already received two stickers because she went number 2 in the potty tonight! Yes, that's right. I said number 2! Go, Evie, Go!!!!!

7 years :)

January 29, 2005. That date seems like a long time ago, but at the same time, it feels like it has flown by! Owen and I have been married for 7 whole years and sometimes I can't believe it has been that long! We went to this annual Dupont meeting last year in Feb. and this year it just happened to be over our anniversary :) Lucky us! We received a free stay in a luxery hotel, complete with a free fancy dinner! AND my friend Kristi took Miss Evie for the night. It was such a nice little get away!











Coeur d'Alene Lake is truly beautiful and we had a beautiful view from our room! Owen had meetings from 1-5 on Saturday. One of my best friends' husband works for Simplot so they were there for the meeting as well, so me and my friend went shopping all day!!! She was so sweet to go maternity shopping with me :) And give me true opinions! Love you Courtney :) I was also grateful they were there because I usually don't like social work situations. Everyone just drinks and it's awkward - not because they are drinking, just because we don't know anyone....and we are usually the youngest ones there. Anyway, we had a very nice dinner that night because our friends were there too :)


Us before dinner. You can see my pregnant self getting bigger by the day. It is quite the conversation piece. People love seeing a pregnant woman, there is just something about it that sparks up the conversation!

Us after dinner. We didn't know what to do with ourselves because we are used to getting Evie to bed and then crashing ourselves. We didn't have Ev's, so we decided to go get some snacks and watch TV. Luckily TBS had Everybody Loves Raymond and King of Queens on - two of our favorite shows. We were up til 1:00 AM, wich was also lucky because our toilet started overflowing, like filled almost the whole bathroom overflowing. So we had the maintenance guy come up and we were loopy and just laughing and laughing...poor guy. For the record, neither of us plugged it up, I promise! The toilet was having problems when we first checked into our room! I know the situation sounds so glamorous, but we really enjoyed just hanging out with each other :)

Our messy hotel room and Owen sprawled out on the nice and roomy king sized bed.

The view from our room. Last year we were quite a bit higher up. This year we were only on the 3rd floor, but it was still a beautiful view of the lake and all of the trees.

We ventured out onto the balcony the next morning. Owen looks across the room where the other door is that leads out to the other side of the balcony. We didn't even realize the door was there.

And we find THIS!!! Owen was totally dismayed! We couldn't believe that we missed the hot tub on our balcony! I couldn't have sat in it, but Owen could have, and boy was he mad!!!

The next morning we went to Denny's for breakfast. Owen knows how much I love 50's diners, so we stopped at this one! They played all of the oldies music I know and love!

My friend Kristi and I kept in contact via text and picture messages and she assured me that Evie was doing great. She was a good eater and only asked for me a few times and slept through the night! I couldn't have asked for a better person to take care of Evie:) The first text I received from her consisted of how her oldest son, who is 7, had to unbuckle Evie's carseat and help her out of their van AND roll her suitcase into the house. Then her younger son, who is 4, helped Evie into the house, all the while telling her to be really careful because it was slippery out. What little gentlemen! She had a blast, but we were both so excited to see each other!

We couldn't have asked for a better anniversary! I love Owen so much and we are so much more in love today than we were when we got married! He is such a good husband and such a good father! I couldn't have asked for a better spouse. I love you, Owen and am so grateful for everything you do for me and our family!

24 hour job....

Being mom is a 24 hour job. For sure. Potty training is on a whole new level. This is seriously hard work! The first attempted day, I was exhausted by 7 o'clock that night. I hadn't pushed Evie going on the potty since summer. I would invite her to sit on the potty and she would usually yell "NO POTTY" and slam the potty lid shut.....hmmm....I was guessing she wasn't quite ready. What do I do. Duct tape her to the toilet? Nope...not unless you want her to hate it. Anyway, the other day when we were housebound with all of the snow, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to start the dreaded potty training. She did all right the first couple days. Actually, there was one day that she didn't go at all on the potty. Sunday night she went on the potty before bath time and I thought this was my chance. We had bought some Dora stickers and Minnie Mouse stickers at the store on Saturday.

I was all concerned the the chart needed to look perfect and printed out, blah, blah,blah. Then I realized this is a 2 year old. She doesn't care what it looks like. As long as it has stickers on it! So I drew this up really quickly. SHE. LOVED. IT! I made a small goal of 13 blocks. Every time she pee pees in the potty she gets a sticker. Then when she gets ALL of the blocks filled up, she gets to go the dollar store and pick out a balloon. She was all over that!

This is her with her potty chart! She has filled up 2 more blocks since this picture :)
If she goes before bedtime she also gets to pick out a pull-up. We have princess ones, froggy ones and now Dora ones. It works pretty well to keep her motivated. When we are at home I just have her in panties and try to sit her on the potty every 20 min or so. She has had lots of accidents and I have cleaned up more pee than I have ever wanted to, but I want this kid trained BEFORE this baby gets here!

Owen has been such a big help with this, so that has been nice. He is always helping her get excited about the potty and when she goes on the potty! Sure glad I have a supportive husband who is home most of the winter to help me out!

We are kind of making slow progress, BUT progress IS progress - and I'll take it! Hopefully the next time I post about this topic she will have it mastered! Wish us luck ~ I think we are gonna need it!

Snow storm!

This ( I'm missing those sunny, warm days!):
and this:

Don't mix very well! I attempted to leave my home Wed morning for the gym. I slid all over the road to the stop sign by our place. Then proceeded to get stuck at the stop sign. THIS SNOW IS DEEP! Instead of digging myself deeper into the snow, and not wanting to chance my life or Evies life OR the life of anyone else on the road - I backed my car up and went right back home. That is where I have stayed ever since. I did have to work Wed. night, but because of Owens flexible work schedule (or non existent, if you will, because of the season) he was able to drive me safely to work and back in his 4 wheel drive truck. The only 2 "accidents" I have ever had were when I was living in Rexburg and driving at 2 mph and slid into another car. Our car was way nicer than the stupid, beat up, old truck I slid into - but the guy insisted on getting my insurance. Pretty sure there was more damage to ours than his. Whatever. Should be coming off my insurance record soon! Anyway- HATE driving in the snow.

The snow does make this little girl happy! Luckily one of my best friends has a nice 4x4 vehicle, and she lives a little ways down the road, accepted our invitation to come over and build a snowman and have hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies!

The snow wasn't good packing snow....so no snowman today :( Evie and Addi had fun playing nonetheless. We were only out there for maybe 10 or 15 min. and Evie had had enough. Here's to hoping this weather goes away soon! Bring on the spring! BTW- the snow is still coming down pretty hard!

Advice please :)

Ok. When I was pregnant with Evie I had no idea any of this stuff was out there. But since then I have been hearing about a few different post pregnancy products. After having Evie it took me a good 6 months to get back to my pre - pregnancy weight. I don't remember how long it took me to fit back into my pre - pregnancy jeans for sure, though. Anyway, if ANYONE out there reading this has ever used one of these products or know someone who has or even has any advice or information at all, please leave a comment! Greatly appreciated!


I definitely returned to my pre pregnancy hip size - eventually. Could this product speed up the process? Or is just a ploy to get money from women who are desperate to try anything? Thoughts anyone?!

The Belly Bandit. My sister in law told me to wrap my stomach after I had Evie, but I never did. Anybody ever used this one?! If so, what did you think?

I Love to see the Temple

The last time Owen and I were able to make it to the temple together was a year ago in November. After we moved to Moses Lake, the closest temple was over an hour away. Add in a child and it felt like it was near impossible to ever get there. Last night we were invited to go do baptisms at the beautiful Columbia River Temple. Owen is a ward missionary and we had 2 recent converts that were going for their first time to do baptisms. We brought Evie with us and she played in the waiting room with another adult mommy from our ward and her baby and then we swapped :)

Evie was SO excited to be at the temple. When we sing songs at night together, she always says "I wanna sing temple song, mommy" When we walked to the waiting room she was so reverent and whispered. It was such a beautiful place to be together as a little family :) I loved being able to feel peace, knowing that I was in the Lord's house. When Owen and I were going to school in Rexburg, ID the closest temple at that time was the Idaho Falls, ID temple. Wed. was the only day both of us had off. So every Wed. we would make the drive, which is about 30 min. away, and go to the temple. We went faithfully every week, even after we moved to Boise, and served the Lord in his Temple. I miss those days. It's amazing how quickly life and priorities change. It reminds me of a talk given by James E. Faust entitled "How Near to the Angels."

This is a quote from the talk:

Women today are encouraged by some to have it all: money, travel, marriage, motherhood, and separate careers in the world. For women, the important ingredients for happiness are to forge an identity, serve the Lord, get an education, develop your talents, serve your family, and if possible to have a family of your own.
However, you cannot do all these things well at the same time. You cannot eat all of the pastries in the bakery at once. You will get a tummyache. You cannot be a 100-percent wife, a 100-percent mother, a 100-percent Church worker, a 100-percent career person, and a 100-percent public-service person at the same time. How can all of these roles be coordinated? I suggest that you can have it sequentially.
Sequentially means to do things one at a time at different times. The book of Ecclesiastes says: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under … heaven” (Eccl. 3:1).

This talk was given in 1998 and I still remember this part as clear as day. I was only in 8th grade, but I knew it would apply to me someday, somehow. Right now, my priority is raising my young children. We have had lots of different people in our ward offer to watch Evie so we can go. And I think I am finally feeling comfortable enough to take one of them up on it :) One of our goals for this year is to make the temple more of a priority in our marriage and life. Owen's parents used to serve in the Boise, ID temple before it was closed for remodeling. I love their example of faithful service. I can't help but think about Owen and myself, when we grow older, and how wonderful an experience it would be to serve the Lord in his temple side by side . "To every thing there is a season.." I love the temple and am so grateful for our knowledge of eternal families.

It's a..............

BOY!!!

I don't want to be negative about this ultrasound experience, however, it definitely wasn't like Evies for more than the obvious reason :) I went in for my monthly appointment on Jan.3 and during my appointment they scheduled my ultrasound. They told me the current week was all full and that we would be looking into the next week. I was more than irritated by that because I wanted to schedule it the previous month. I convinced myself that waitng a couple days wasn't going to be a big deal. Then they told me they offer them at night now. So I thought Monday night would be perfect. That way I could make sure Owen could be there. I was thinking like 6 or 6:30 pm. They came in and told me 8:15 pm was my appointment. That's a weird time, but whatever. So, we show up at the hospital at 8:10 pm (I was early to something? I know, shocking.) But when your bladder is going to burst you hope they can get you in a tad bit early. NO SUCH LUCK. Apparently I was just thrown in with whatever ER patients were there currently. Now, I know I sound selfish - BUT it wasn't explained to me that that is what was going to be happening. SO, we didn't get into the ultrasound until 9:15. By that time Evie had already tripped and hit her head on the floor twice (poor thing) but considering the situation she did extremely well for being there that long with us :) I asked if everything looked ok and she said she wasn't allowed to tell me anything (roll my eyes) - she did tell us the gender....obviously. At first she couldn't tell because the cord was right there. She said I am 95% sure it's a girl, but she didn't sound convinced. She kept going over it, trying to get a better picture. She was asking me if I had any questions and I asked her nicely if she could please recheck the gender for me. She tried again and still couldn't get a clear shot - so she had me empty my bladder to see if baby would move. After I came back she checked again and said "I think that's a little boy in there!" You should have seen Owen's face. He had a smile from ear to ear! He asked how sure she was and she said 98%. So, the way I look at it - if we prepare for a boy and get surprised with a girl in May, I still have all of Evie's clothes - so we are set either way! I am convinced it's a boy and here are the pics we got :) Most people can't make out ultrasound pictures, but these are some pretty clear shots :

His cute little profile pic :) She got a cute one of his foot, but she didn't print that one out for me. I didn't even get a cd with the images on it. Maybe the doctor will give me one. Hopefully with our next baby, I will be able to have my old OB from Boise :)

This is the gender picture.....see between the legs, where the arrow is?

We didn't get out of there until 10:30 pm, so 11:30 pm Boise time. Sorry to everyone who was worrying :( The baby is alive and healthy (as far as we know!)

After we got home and told Evie she was going to have a baby brother, she walked up to my tummy and put her hand on it and said so sweetly "oh, baby brother. So sweet" It was the cutest thing I have ever heard! We are so excited!

Half way!

I've made it!!! Well, Tuesday I will be a full 20 weeks, but who's counting (yeah - Right!)? I am feeling this little baby move more and more every day. I've been feeling really good and enjoying this time before the uncomfortable stage hits. My sister gave me a pair of really nice maternity pants that she got at a consignment sale for cheap. I loved the way they fit so I was determined to find the same brand. I searched at all of the second hand baby stores with no such luck :( I resorted to paying full price for maternity pants. Any of you that have shopped for and bought maternity pants know they are not cheap. Luckily, Motherhood Maternity was having a buy one get one 1/2 off sale. I knew if I was going to pay an absurd amount I might as well get one of the pairs for 1/2 off. So, the pants I am wearing in this picture are maternity and they aren't that bad - may I add :) PLUS - I am so much more comfortable. My regular jeans still fit, but when I was sitting they dug into my lower abdomen too much. Hopefully I will have my ultra sound this week and it will show that all is well. Oh, and I guess we will find out if it's a boy or girl ;) Can't wait! We have names picked out for either so I guess we are good to go :)

Spiritual Pondering

This is the most recent entry from my sister's blog. She is an amazing person and I am lucky to call her my sister. Her kids love the gospel and I know why. She is an excellent mother. She is such an eloquent writer and when reading this, the spirit touched me and the tears were streaming down my face. I love her thoughts on the Savior, Mary and Joseph. I hope she doesn't mind me sharing this :)

Mary, Did You Know?
I love this newly discovered depiction of the nativity with Mary nursing the newborn Christ-child surrounded by heavenly hosts and Joseph looking slightly overwhelmed. I've been thinking a lot about Mary and Joseph this year because of the timely arrival of Archie. A new baby is the perfect Christmas gift and the best way to spur one's thoughts toward the baby Jesus and his little earthly family. One of my favorite Christmas songs is 'When Joseph Went to Bethlehem.' It's simple lyrics and tune make me tear up every time I hear it or sing it. We know so little about Joseph other than he was a man of great faith, compassion and understanding. I try to imagine his thoughts and feelings as he 'held the little Jesus close upon that holy night.' Just as Mary was a 'chosen vessel' so too was Joseph foreordained to be Jesus' mortal father, to guard and protect and watch over the Savior of the world. What an honor and privilege to be able to serve the Master in a way that no one else would.And then there's Mary, 'most beautiful and fair above all other virgins,' chosen to carry and deliver her Messiah. It would be difficult to comprehend such a miracle. A normal birth of a normal child is overwhelming and a great spiritual experience. In an instant it seems, a little tiny baby is born and put into your arms and then all of the weight of responsibility rushes in. It's an experience like no other. Words really do fail to explain all of the feelings and emotions that accompanies that experience and then compound that with a miracle conception and birth of the Son of God. Little wonder that 'Mary kept all of these things and pondered them in her heart.' We know that she knew what was happening but how could any human fully comprehend what she, the mother of Jesus, would see and experience as she raised him from baby to man? Undoubtedly, Mary's love for Jesus was like that of a common mother whose fawning love for her infant resembles adoration. But her love for him and true adoration grew exponentially as she cared for him, nursed him, bathed him, changed him, fed him and watched him grow in wisdom and understanding and eventually realizing his divine role. Mary did for him what he could not do for himself as a young child. What a blessed experience to serve him as no other human could. Which begs the question, 'What can we do to serve him? What errand does he require of us?' These are questions I am asking myself as this new year dawns. What good can I accomplish this year?
Posted by Angie at 9:48 AM