i don't have a picture to upload of kelly yet, but she is a total combination of both ryan and emily. i am so happy she is here and healthy. babies are still such a miracle to me. i can't believe that such tiny little things function so well. i already love her so much, and our little family is now complete!
yesterday when i was getting ryan ready for church, i told him to "go into mom and dad's bathroom" and brush his teeth. he looked at me and said, "say my." i have been trying not to talk to him like that anymore (using mom instead of my, etc), but i haven't said anything to him about it. i guess he just caught on, and was helping me. yes, i was corrected by my 5 year old! saturday we had our super saturday, and i was on my feet all day. yesterday when i went to find shoes to wear to church, i couldn't comfortably squeeze my swollen feet into any of my cute sandals. so, i decided to wear my flip flops. as i put them on, ryan noticed me and asked me, "mom, are those appropriate shoes for church?" i just started to laugh, and told him that they are when you are pregnant and have swollen feet. what does he know anyway :) i love that boy!
we love this little video of our baby girl. she's giving us the thumbs up that everything is good!
we found out today that we are having another girl. i was so excited because that's what i wanted. i thought it would be better to have a girl, so that emily and the new baby would be closer in age. and, my sister is having a girl next month, so they would be really close in age. when i told emily, she didn't really say much. from the beginning, she has told me that it was a girl. ryan, on the other hand was a different story. he about broke my heart. when he got home from school i was showing him all of the ultra sound pictures. then i had him read the one that says "it's a girl." he read it once, and then the second time he almost started crying because he really wanted a brother. i quickly told him how lucky he would be that he would never have to share his boy toys, and that made him feel much better. he then told me that when the baby is older her name would be princess leia, and after she was born it would just be leia. he was totally serious too. i feel bad that he will never know what it's like to have a brother, but he is going to be (and already is) an awesome big brother to 2 little sisters.
a few days old
3rd birthday
4th birthdayi have been wanting to get the kids into swimming lessons for awhile now, but just never really knew where to take them. well, i found out about a lady who lives very close to us that teachers in her own pool in her backyard. i signed the kids up for a 2 week session (8 lessons total). i never thought in a million years that anyone would be able to get the kids to swim that quick, but i just wanted them to get some basic moves. so, after 2 weeks i have 2 little swimmers. wahoo! they way surpassed my expectations, and i couldn't be happier. they never want to wear their floaties anymore. it's hard to watch both of them in the pool at the same time, so we have to put the floaties on sometimes, but they both complain the whole time. i totally believe in swimming lessons now. i am so proud of my little swimmers!!!!
you can't really tell, but this is us on catalina island.
we were lucky enough to have a balcony suite on the ship, and one morning there were at least 20 dolphins playing around, right off of our balcony. it was pretty cool to see so close.
every night they do a turn down service, and leave you some kind of animal made out of towels. here are just a few.
today i was playing hangman with ryan on the computer. this was the first time he had played, so i did a few games first to show him how it works. he sat quietly and watched me do a few words. on about the 4th word i was down to my last letter before i lost the game. it had 9 spaces, and i had only guessed correctly the s,b,a,d. i was sitting there for trying to figure it out, and i told ryan that i was probably going to loose this game. just as i got done saying that he said, "it's surfboard mommy!" how on earth did he know that? sure enough, he was right. so, i guess my 4 year old is already a better speller than me. i love that little smarty pants!
my brother, sister-in-law, and their 2 kids came down from las vegas for easter weekend. the kids had so much fun together. my sister-in-law and her family (from slc) were visiting also, but they were staying at my in-laws house. all together their were 12 kids. it was a busy weekend. in addition to the egg hunt we had for the 4 kids at my house, we got to go to my in-laws and have one there also. they hid over 200 eggs. the kids buckets were filled to the brim. we also got to go swimming, eat lots of yummy food, and play fun games. i was sad to see everyone go home. it's always fun spending time with family!
we went to westgate last saturday and had lunch at margaritaville (won't go there again!). it was kinda fun to walk around, and the kids loved these huge waterfalls they had. 
ryan got to go on a field trip to cold stone (yummy). he got to pick out his topping, and then mix in the ice cream. he thought it was pretty cool. you can't really see in these pictures, but he got a major shiner the other day at school. a little girl ran into him. it actually happened a few weeks ago, and we can still see it now. OUCH!
this is how i find the kids when they are watching shows lately. they like to be right next to each other. you can tell it is morning time bacause emily isn't dressed and is waiting for me to get her a dress. every morning she wakes up, and first thing she does is take off her pj's and tells me to get her a dress to wear.
i thought this was a cute pic of em. this is one of the few times i could actually get her to wear pants. i think she looks so grown up. you can almost tell what she is going to look like as a teenager.
a few weeks ago my parents were here visiting. they just so happened to be here on the exact same day of my dad's accident a year ago. my dad still can't remember anything about the crash. he wanted to go and see exactly where it was that it happened. the top picture is where darrel and david found him under the atv. the bottom picture is of him in icu. that was a horrible thing to go through, and we are so glad that we still have him around (even with his brain damage as he calls it). i guess he isn't the same as before, but as long as he is still alive we are so happy he's still with us (and he isn't as bad as he thinks he is. he is only a little embarrassing at times :)).
we had such a great little vacation! it was the first trip without any melt downs from the kids. they both were so good, and had so much fun. ryan was finally tall enough to go on all of the "big kid" rides, and he couldn't get enough. i asked him which ride was his favorite and he said, "probably splash mountain because of the 50 foot plunge." he went on it about 8 times. i think the longest line we waited in was about 15 minutes. it was the perfect time of year to go (and the weather was absolutely beautiful too). we went to disneyland so i could get in free on my birthday. when we got our passes they gave me a big button that said "happy birthday amy" on it. i was reluctant to wear it, but put it on anyway. there were so many other people with their b-day buttons on, that i didn't feel that dumb. it was kinda fun having everyone and their dog wishing you a happy birthday. i highly recommend going on your b-day!
