The news is out...

The theme this week at M&M's school was family......I guess it was the perfect time for our news to break at Show and Tell.......they wore these (adorable) shirts to help them spread the word.....no longer a secret I guess :)
We are all very thrilled to be adding to (and completing) our family!

5 weeks
9 weeks

As you can see, my body hasn't changed much yet......stay posted :)

Wrapping it up....

The summer that is....

The last few days of summer vacation were excessively wet. Flood conditions to be exact. Gladly, we didn't have any flooding in our house or really even in our area of town. Since we were stuck inside because of the rain, the girls and I made cupcakes. For those of you who know me really well (and know that I'm a control freak :) ), you'll be really glad to know that I let the girls do everything....really everything!
Myah lined the pan with paper liners, then cracked the egg. They each got a turn to run the mixer and to scoop the batter into the pan.



The next evening, we frosted the cupcakes, which was interesting, but fun nonetheless!! Please note that as a general rule, we do NOT lick knives at our house, but maybe just this once :)

Caution to anyone eating the cupcakes, there might be a little extra saliva from licking fingers or the occasional sneeze.....don't we love cooking with littles?!

Though all the roads into and out of Ames were closed, we found a secret path that led us to the Iowa State Fair. The girls participated in the Twins, Triplets, and More Contest. We entered the 3-year-old look alike division (they also had the least alike division). They didn't place, but they did receive a participant ribbon. It was ridiculously hot, but they were still troopers.

We had corn dogs for breakfast:)

There was a really neat activity at the fair for the girls called Little Hands on the Farm. It was really neat for them. They each got a free hat from Pioneer and then wore an apron and carried a basket. A path led us from station to station. First, the girls got to choose a coin with a picture of a vegetable on it and they got to plan in the garden, then they harvested their crop by picking plastic vegetables from a barrel. These were later "taken" to the Farmer's Market to be "sold."

They picked eggs from the hens and used soy beans to make soy diesel for their tractor.

They rode a few rides, and then we headed home...

but not without eating again. This time we tried prok tenderloins, cheese balls, and of course a strawberry smoothie. Myah especially enjoyed the smoothie.

We are now back in the swing of things at school. I have had two days with students and Brandon will have students starting this next Tuesday. The girls have moved up to Room 3 at Formative Years and have joined some of their "old" friends and some new ones are joining them as well. Myah has even learned to spell her name already...she says "M-y-h-h" close enough for a three year old, I think!

She Earned Them!

By "them" I mean the flip-flops!! Maysen stayed dry all day today and earned her flip-flops around noon when we were getting ready to head to the pool! She's been changing herself lately (laugh it up....it's ridiculous!) and Brandon and I kept saying to her "If you can change your own pull-up, then you really don't need them any more." This morning she changed herself, like every morning the last week, but this time she put underwear on herself instead of another pull up! I was so very nervous, but I told myself,'Don't freak out....you can handle one accident and then get her back in a pull-up.' But there weren't any accidents and she's been doing great. She's not to the point yet, and won't be for a few weeks, where she's ready to tell us that she needs to go, but we just set the timer (she responds very well to the timer) and when it goes off, she goes to the potty. No fights, no tears, no shouting....just "tinkles in the potty!" I'll keep you posted, of course, but we've been pretty darn excited around here today!

And here is the little Sprite (I borrowed that term from Kelle Hampton...'cause there's really no better term for this one....she really is a Sprite!) herself. These pictures were taken on the first of a few rainy days in a row. The conversation went something like this:
M: Mommy, can we go to the pool?
K: Not today, honey, it's been thundering and raining all day and the pool isn't open.
(pause)
M: Mommy, can we go to the park?
K: We can't go there either, honey, because the slides are all wet...it's been raining all day.
(pause)
M: Mommy, can we go for a walk?
K: Sure, we can go for a walk before it starts raining again. Get some shoes on.

Of course, the only logical shoes were rain boots....and totally adorable with this dress she dug out of the box in my room that contains the clothes that they've outgrown. (It's smaller and tighter than it appears in the pictures). As you can see, it did start raining on us during our walk, but we really didn't care!


Since the last post, our friend Macy turned 3. It was a Princess Ariel party and all of the kids had a blast. The biggest hit was the 'Balloon Lady' who made balloon favors for each of the kids. Myah got a Flower Hat and each of the girls got some Butterfly Wings. The balloons have deflated now, but they were a hit!


It's not summer with out sweet corn. Even though I end up cutting it off the cob and eating it from the bowl, you still have to have some before summer is over. Our neighbors brought us some, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Sweet Corn is Brandon's territory. This year, he taught the girls how to husk the ears. They were so cute. It was like a tresaure hunt to them....to find the corn inside. They would pull off the layers....slowly, mind you, and victoriously cheer 'I did it' between each laborious layer. They each got one ear done while Brandon did the rest, but they had a great time. Of course, they left the mess for dad to clean up too!