What makes me happy

Ashton entertains us on a daily basis. This is the best age. He is starting to understand a ton and he likes to go places. I no longer feel like I am dragging him around to get my errands done. He remembers things about the museum, park and the zoo. He brings us a book and then sits in our laps and sits and listens and then puts out hands on the book if he wants us to read it again. He brings us his shoes knowing that once his shoes are on he gets to go outside. He copies everything we do. He's turning into a little person. I loved him when he was just a little baby but this is SO much more fun.

David left out his slippers (that I loathe) and Ashton kept bringing them to us so we would put them on. In the video you'd think he has bricks on his feet.

And then there were 3...

well 3.5 really. Who knew 7 of us in our small apartment would be so easy and fun! M&J left yesterday and we were more than sad to see them ago. Here's the wrap up of our adventures in the big D.
After a detour to the park we finally hit the zoo when it wasn't packed with spring breakers.

The monkies were a huge hit as always.

But the stream will always be the favorite.

We had to strip them down to their diapers before we got to the car. Here's the stroller line up.

My eyes are closed but here ya go Mom- my 31 week belly shot. (Emily I'm really posting this so you feel better about your tiny belly that's 4 weeks ahead of mine.)

The only picture of all of us. Bad lighting but the lemurs were behind us.

Jason almost set off the smoke alarm with all those candles. He's getting so old!

Kissing cousins. We told them to give kisses to say goodbye and this was the result. Yet another picture they'll hate us for when they're older. Notice both their eyes are closed. haha. Thanks for coming guys! Ashton is already missing Kimball.

I'll be sure to blame you guys at my next midwife appointment when I step on the scale. We'll see you in UT & Vegas this summer!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Here are the pictures of the kiddos we promised you. Friday it rained ALL day long. And the kids played by the window and watched the storm. And Mandy & Jason were nice enough to babysit while I went to the school and had David do a filling for me.

Then I took a picture from the outside looking in.

We tried to have them take a nap together.

Then we went to the museum. Jack tuckered out.

But he woke up just in time to play with the pingpong balls floating in the air.

Can you see his huge comb over?

Don't let them fool you into thinking they were laying down. Ashton was wrestling Kimball. He's got her legs pinned. The air matress has been a great new toy.

Then Kimball was playing in the exersaucer and Ashton crawled in with her. I don't know how they fit or where their legs were or why my son was naked.

Then they took their customary bath.

In their matching outfits. Ashton's a little too small. Did I mention Jack is only 5 months? He's HUGE! I realized I promised a belly shot. We'll get one tomorrow at the zoo.

Sisters

This picture is almost 2 years old but it's one of my favorites. Disclaime: Mandy & I are both pregnant although she was 8 months pregnant and I was only 4. And Cally obviously stole the show with hottness because it was her wedding day.

Anyway, today I was pondering on how sad it is that you rarely appreciate your siblings until you're all grown up and living away from eachother. Or maybe that's the reason that you begin to appreciate them. At any rate - anyone who has sisters knows what a pain it is to live far from them. Thank goodness for cellphones so I can call any one of these 3 Tuesday morning to discuss what happened on the Bachelor.

The exciting news is that Mandy and her family are coming to visit us next week and David & I are thrilled. I'm pretty sure Dallas isn't on anyone in my family's top vacation destination but I'm grateful they'll make the trek out here (for a 2nd time) just to see us. We wont dissapoint, I promise.

In a perfect world we'd all have houses down the street from Mom & Dad's in Midway. So this was my shout out to my 3 favorite girls even though one of them pretends not to read these silly blogs.

Finally home...

My oldest brother Josh is a stud. He got home from a year in Afghanistan at 5am this morning. Here are some pictures I stole from my sis-in-law Kara's blog.

He's in the back.
A picture from the Utah news.

Kara is a star. She did this for the 2nd time with 4 kids. We love you guys!

These pictures made me bawl like a baby. Just makes me so proud.

As David toys with the idea of making a career out of the military makes me grateful he has two great guys from my family to look to.

All Things Brown

David jokes that Ashton has learned that all things brown are delicious. I'm sure you can name more than a few reasons about why this could totally backfire on us. But due to the abundance of butterfingers, crunchbars & brownies in our house these past 7 months - our little guy has figured it out. On Sunday my attempt to make chocolate covered strawberries went all wrong when I let the chocolate cool (I made fudge). That's the 2nd time I've made it by accident. Anyway, Ashton went into the garbage (yep we're awesome parents) and grabbed the handful of chocolate that luckily was laying on top of a cereal box and stuffed his face. This was the result. Excellent, I know.

This is a picture of him after playing in the "sand box" (ie the volleyball court at the Village). I don't know if you can tell but his mouth is COVEREd in sand. Apparently he thought the sand was food. Most kids take one lick and make the yucky face and quit right there. Not this one. He ate handful after handful of sand that afternoon. It was gross. I figure if he's not dead yet from the gross things he's picked up and actually swallowed he's going to survive life just fine.

Onto our next thing brown. This HUGE comfy chair has a story behind it. All of the furniture in our apartment is made up of hand me downs or gifts. I think we've only bought a bookshelf and a cheap Ikea chair. That being said I never pushed David for a glider or a rocking chair when I had Ashton. The narrowness & upright position of those things never screamed "comfortable late night nursing sessions". So when the President's Day sale at Rooms2Go advertised an amazing deal for a microfiber rocker recliner (my DREAM nursing chair) I did everything but fall on my knees begging David for it. He said yes, only because I had made $170 the week before selling some of his old textbooks.

Imagine my suprise when this MASSIVE thing was delivered into our 967 sq ft apartment. It is bigger than half of our couch. It doesn't match anything but I had to buy this for our future furniture instead of trying to match my parent's old couch. So here we have it, the best chair in the whole world out of place in our tiny living room. So even though it makes the room a bit of an eye sore it is beloved.

There you can get an idea of just how small it makes the room look. I'll have to do something with the wall behind it but I have zero motivation to spend any $$ on trying to match a room of hand me downs when we'll be out of here in 15 months.

Anyway enough with the house stuff...

Here are Ashton's latest tricks.

Other than the big exciting chair we don't have anything new to report. All is on track for baby Hannah. And I hit my 3rd trimester this week - WAHOO!

Oh, I almost forgot, David wanted me to blog that I have headbutted him in the middle of my sleep twice in the last 3 nights. I have NO idea what I'm dreaming of but we both wake up the second after it happens like "what the???!" It makes me laugh out loud everytime I think of the fact that I've headbutted him not once but twice in my sleep this week. I blame it on the pregnancy.

The days just keep flying by...

We went to the science museum today. After a little bit of begging David let me get a membership. I decided today that we will more than pay it off over the next year. And the fact that it is closer to our house than any decent park is definitely a bonus.

Here's Ashton playing with the mirrors. Look how long his legs are.

And this is the little water table. All of the other little kids played with the cool little toys. Ashton just splashed and splashed and splashed. Notice there is NO ONE around him he was far too crazy.

And he got SOAKED. The little smock didn't do much for him. This was his sad face when I took him away from the table.

And Mom here's Ashton opening your package.

And these are his new moves. Take note at how he needs to put one hand down because he is serious when he dances.