Preschool Graduation

Ty is officially done with preschool. He had his graduation program this week and it was so cute! He played the role of Noah, but his beard wouldn't stay on!

oops!
Through out the year the students created a "journal," filling out a page each month. Here were Ty's entries:

September: My favorite thing about school is: Doing my art work

October: When I grow up I would like to be: a ski hockey player

November: I am thankful for: my house.

December: My gift to baby Jesus would be: a web blaster. (what?!)

January: In the winter I like to: help my dad put out my new sled and go sled riding.

February: I love: my brother when we're wrestling.

March: My favorite story is: Bionicles.

April: Spring is fun because: I like to ride my bike and play in the sun.

May: This summer I am going to: go to Disney World. (um, sorry to disappoint you Ty...)

My favorite color: white

My favorite food: cheese hot dogs

My favorite place to go: Disney

My best friend: my cousin, Zachary

Had to capture this little guy too.

Our Trip to PA

Warning: This post contains a lot of pictures. Sorry.

Keith and I wanted to take the boys on one last "boys" trip before the baby arrives, so we decided what better place than Traintown, USA (aka Strasburg, PA). Carter is absolutely obsessed with trains and asks to ride "Choo-Choo's" daily, so this was a perfect trip for them!

First stop: The National Toy Train Museum.

This was a little kids dream museum. Walls and walls of toy trains, dating back to the 1900's and five rooms of working model trains that the boys could control. The boys loved it and Keith and I were impressed with all the detail in the displays.

Next Stop: Choo-Choo Barn

This was just a regular toy store in the front, but when you walked through the curtain, you entered a huge room with a replica of Lancaster county set up. Everything on the display looked real and everything moved. This picture doesn't do it justice.

After dinner at a Dutch "smorgasborg," it was back to the hotel for swimming.

After two weeks of watching Ty in swimming lessons, Carter was so happy to get in the water himself!

Ty showing off his swimming skills to Dad.

Next Day we went to the regular Train Museum. This place was awesome (especially if you are a two or four year old little boy!). It was a huge building filled with real engines and coaches. Some were new, some were over 100 years old. The boys loved being up close to the trains and getting to go on some of them.

Their favorite part of the museum? The room rooms with the all the toy train displays. A couple more pieces and our Geo Trax collection could be in this museum!

This LEGO setup was so cool!

The boys got to make their own LEGO trains.

Next: All aboard the Strasburg Railroad. Definitely the highlight of Carter's trip!

The boys waiting for our train.
We went on an hour train ride around Lancaster County and got to eat lunch in the dining car. Can you tell Carter was happy to be riding on a "choo-choo"?

After the train ride we decided to take an Amish buggy ride (the boys had been obsessed with them since we got there). We found one that was run by a women born and raised Amish and Keith and I asked 100 questions on the trip. Of course, this was my favorite part!! She even let the boys "drive" the buggy.

I know, her coat does not look Amish, apparently she was from a very liberal Amish family.

We didn't realize, until we got there, how close we were to Philly, so we decided to call my cousin, Ali, who recently moved from Utah to Philly. Turned out her sister, Dani, and family had just flown in too, so we drove up to Philly Saturday night to meet them all for dinner. It was so fun to see them and meet there adorable little babies.

To break up our drive on the way home Sunday we decided to stop at Hershey, PA for a tour of the Hershey factory. Poor little Carter threw up ALL over just as we pulled into the parking lot, so needless to say, he didn't have as much fun as expected. The rest of us tried to make the best of it (quickly).

Hershey Kisses coming off the line.

My boys dream store...

The boys "working" in the factory.

One last stop before home: My cousin, Bonnie Jean's house in Penn. It's so fun to finally have family on this side of the country, so I had to make sure to visit each of them. The boys always love visiting with Bonnie's kids and we of course loved the company too.

Yes, Carter is in his pajamas. He threw up again on the ride home and everything else we packed had either been ruined by throw up or poop! So fun!

I'm only posting this unattractive picture for memories sake and so you can see my cute cousin, please remember that I'm 8 1/2 months pregnant and had been in the car for 5 hours!

"Sissy" Has a Birth Date!

My doctor finally gave me an official c-section day: June 6th!

18 more days until we get to meet our "Sissy."

**For those of you not familiar with "Sissy"...Ty has insisted since we found out we were having a girl that her name should be "Sissy." When I tried to tell him it would make a good nickname, he said, "No, Sissy is her real name, Love can be her nickname." So, until Keith and I agree on something else, and probably even after that, this baby will be unofficially known as "Sissy."

I'm Officially a Soccer Mom

Keith and I tried to fight it. We explored all our options. We tried to find a fun SUV that would work...but we are now the new owners of a minivan--and we LOVE it!

Keith surprised me with it the night before we left on our weekend trip (more on that in the next post). No, he did not buy a car without my input, we picked it out together but he surprised me with it a month earlier than expected. I just have to say...I have no idea how we ever traveled without a minivan, especially this minivan!! It was beautiful when each of the boys wanted to watch something different and Keith reminded me that it was okay...Ty could watch the Disney channel (yep, satelite tv is awesome!) on one screen, Carter could watch his movie on another screen, and Keith and I could still listen to what we wanted to up front! Awesome! Stow N' Go, awesome! Power doors, awesome. Having a third row seat that three can fit comfortable and still have room for luggage behind it, awesome!

So, am I thrilled about rolling around town in a minivan? Do I feel cool in a minivan? Maybe not, but I'm so excited to have it! Thanks Keith.

The Other Reasons I Haven't Been Blogging

...with less than a month before "Sissy" arrives, I have been in project overdrive! Besides making thank you notes and trying to catch up on scrapbooks, I finished these recently:



Remember that cute Amy Fuches kit my friend, Karolyn, sent me? I finished it a few weeks ago. It turned out so cute! Right now I have it hanging on "Sissy's" armour to keep something special in (I haven't decided what). (I'd just like to add that this was my first button hole on the sewing maching--not too bad!)

I finished my Amy Butler "Nappy Bag" diaper bag this week too. It was the first time I really followed a sewing pattern and did all the technical stuff and I think it turned out pretty good! Now I have to do the changing pad to match.

Gotta love the belly peeking out!

This is the part I'm most proud of. Can you even tell there's a cell phone pocket there? Check out that pattern matching!

And of cours, hairbows, hairbows and more bows (and flowers for headbands)! There are still more on my craft table. This girl is set! Notice that she is missing a first initial...hmm. Better get on that!

My mother-in-law finished the bedding (and I'm totally in love with it) and I've been busting on some other projects in her room, but it's not ready for the blog debut just yet.

I'm Back (lucky you!)

I was informed tonight that although the salad really is awesome, some people are tired of seeing the recipe when they open the blog.

I know I've been a total blog slacker. Keith used to accuse me of being obsessed with blogging (okay, so maybe I am at times) but lately I just haven't been up to it. So much has been going on and I have had a hard time finding time (or energy) and then I felt overwhelmed about catching up. But after a pep talk from my friends, I'm ready to blog again.


So what's been keeping me from blogging (besides my increasingly large belly that's sucking all the energy out of me)? Well to name a few:


Some of my cute friends threw me a baby shower/girls night out last week at Brio (one of my favorite!). It was so fun to get together with the girls and I have to admit that I enjoyed being "showered" in cute pink outfits!! Thank you Stephanie, Ashley and Tiffany for all your planning and for everyone else that was able to make it.






Baseball season is officially in full swing. After our a lot of rain outs and scheduling conflicts, we had our first game this week. Keith is Ty's coach and it is so fun to watch them have this time together. Technically, this league doesn't keep score, but our team did awesome! Ty batted really well and even got some action in the field!

Carter holding down the fort on the bench. He can't wait until he's old enough to play.

Soccer continues...Ty had three games (one in the pouring rain) and two practices in the last two weeks. I worry about him getting tired or overwhelmed, but he's loving it! (and yes, we still have Tae Kwon Do and swimming lessons twice a week too!)

Ty's #1 fan:

And that, my friends, is some of what I've been doing.