Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Here at Home

Life has been a little unexpected, a little crazy for a while now.  I'm not quite sure how to take it all in, honestly. Dustin and I were sitting outside last night talking and it just hit so hard that while things make take crazy twists and turns, life is so good right here where we're at.  At home there is much to be happy about.  I am grateful for home.  Right now I am grateful for my little family because I can look to them and know I will quickly find a reason to smile when I'm not quite sure where to go or what else to do.
Sometimes finding a reason to smile and be happy is the only way to "fix" a bad day.
And, I'm pretty sure there are plenty of days when that smile is a fake, but we fake it 'til we make it, right?  There are so many more reasons to be happy than to not...
Even if those reasons are as simple as reminding ourselves that we are just 2 (this is her hand motion for the number 2) or however old and we sure can't understand everything on our own right now.
I'm sure learning more and more every day that the only way to find answers is to look up.
And, when I turn to my Father in Heaven I've been quite surprised at how much there is that I just don't understand right now and finding out that's okay.  I'm learning a little bit at a time and some of the answers just aren't meant to be uncovered quite yet.
So, we take one day at a time (okay, maybe 2-this girl is quite the bargainer.  Everything has to be in twos with her).  We pray for guidance, understanding, patience, love, peace, hope....

And in the meantime, we trust.  We trust like a 2 year old that has no doubt what Mom and Dad tells them will really happen.  Not only do they trust, they hold on to those promises we give them like the whole world depends upon it and they don't forget it.  They trust with a pure, unfailing trust.  And so we must also trust our Father in Heaven.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Down on the "farm"

My parents bought some land and we ventured down to the "farm" with them for an afternoon so Dustin could check it out for the first time.  The land has a fun little pond and lots of places to explore.  It's a great place!
Mikayla's hot dog became fishing bait when she refused to eat it and led to Dustin catching this nasty thing...
We're excited for lots more fun times to come on the "farm"!

Monday, April 9, 2012

The tale of the Easter dress picture.

You know the story.  Your mom did it to you and now you do it to your kids.  The new Easter outfit picture that just HAS to be taken before church.  Here's how our photo op went down.
The ham.
"Be a big girl!"
Peek-a-boo.
Stretching.
"Woo-u-woo-u" (loving her beautiful scrunched hair).
"Bee!" (bug)
Twirling.
Checking out her new shoes.
Oh no!  Dirt on the new shoes!  See it right there?  Everyone panic!
Ta-dah!
More twirling.
Dustin-"Did you toot?"
Mikayla-"NOOOOO!!!!"

The closest to keepers we got....

(I've divided Easter into several posts because of the ridiculous amount of pictures so if you're interested, there's more new posts after this one)

Easter Day Festivities

Sugar cookies!
When we asked Mikayla what colors she wanted she said lellow, of course, but then added purple and blue-we're stepping up in the world!

The basket!
We waited until after her nap for the big basket reveal.
She got bean bags and a CD with some of her favorite songs from library story time on it.  She loves the bean bag song where you put the bean bag on different body parts-she knew exactly what to do with her new bean bags!

The hunt!
The Easter bunny may have hidden 5 1/2 dozen eggs just for Mikayla.  We really wanted to do Easter at home this year so we invited whatever family wanted to come to join us.  Luckily Uncle Jake and Auntie Maren came to help hunt eggs, otherwise we would've been waiting on Mikayla to find them all until next Easter.
Demonstrating the proper way to carry your Easter egg bag.
Stop the bus!  Mikayla has "dirt" (said with an English accent) on her shoes.  She is obsessed with dirt all of a sudden.  At any given time there's bound to be dirt in her eye, dirt in her shoes, dirt on her finger, dirt in her cup, dirt on her food.  I don't even know what to say...
The cheering crowd.  See why we're excited for more siblings and cousins?!?  She's a little outnumbered.
Yummy dinner, dessert and a game followed.  Such a fun day!

P.S. Check out our grass!  It's growing so much since we planted it (picture in this post)-especially after we realized it wasn't getting water for the first 3 1/2 weeks!


The World is Better With "Lellow" Eggs

Thank goodness Dustin is really into coloring eggs and helped get the ball rolling for us in that department.  Mikayla insisted on coloring all her eggs "lellow"-big surprise, right?  When we tried to branch out to blue she dumped the whole cup of dye over.  We learned our lesson and stuck to yellow!
This picture makes me giggle.  First off, the stickers all over his arm courtesy of our sticker queen.  Then, if you'll notice every cup with a spoon in it (and there were more after I took the picture) has one of Dustin's eggs in it.  He gets REALLY into it.  Needless to say, it's a good thing Mikayla was satisfied with one color.  There weren't a lot of free colors to go around.
The "LELLOW" one!!!
Our (mostly Dustin's) masterpieces!

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Big Belly Club

28 weeks