April

April has been pretty busy. Between baby bunnies, Easter, my birthday, and a new baby (she gets her own post though) we've been taking lots of pictures.

My 30th Birthday:

The week before my birthday, Jason and I went on a date, which turned out to be a surprise party for me. He had invited some of my North Dakota friends, my sister and brother-in-law and his parents to meet us at the restaurant to celebrate with us.
The Wednesday before he gave me my first birthday gift. (He likes to celebrate my birthday for most of the month. Isn't he so sweet?) He made an appointment for me to get a pregnancy massage. May I say those things are amazing? Loved. it. The end.
The morning before my birthday he made me crepes with tons of fresh fruit for breakfast. (He had early Sunday meetings on my actual birthday and knew he wouldn't be able to make me breakfast.) Then on the morning of my actual birthday he gave me several presents. He always goes way overboard gift-wise (which is really so sweet!!) and he always does such an awesome job at finding gifts that I love, even when I don't give him any ideas. All I asked for was a new scented wax burner since my other one broke. He got me that, plus a Willow tree statue of a woman holding a newborn baby (which made me tear up being two days away from having my own newborn,) and a cricut machine. Which is super cute since he doesn't really know what one is, but it said online that scrapbookers love them... which is true! I'm just excited to learn how to use it now! He's always so thoughtful and makes such an effort to make my birthdays special, and this one was no exception. He made me a cake after church... and best of all, he did all the dishes that night while my friend, Holly, painted my toenails (haven't been able to reach those little things lately....) My best friend growing up, Serena, came down for the weekend, so that was another special birthday treat. And then to top it off, it was Easter. :)

Here I am at 39 weeks:


Easter:

What's Easter without 9 baby Easter bunnies?

They are getting bigger now, this picture was taken on Easter, it's 2 weeks old.

On Friday night we had some of our friends over and we dyed Easter eggs. As you might be able to guess, I didn't trust Livia to not dye her shirt as well. (Sorry for the little nudey.)

The Easter bunny came Saturday morning and the kids were excited to find their "Easter bags." I have no idea why they kept calling them bags.



Later that day Jason hid all the eggs they had dyed around the yard and they went on their little egg hunt.


The rest of the pictures are from Easter Sunday. Serena was here and she takes such great pictures. So here's a bunch from Sunday:


My sweet little freckle-faced girl:






Happy Easter!!

bunny update

Since I'm sure everyone was wondering...

We put the 5 older baby bunnies up on KSL to sell, and we were surprised how fast they went... and how far people came to get them! One lady and her granddaughter came from Cottonwood (right by Salt Lake) and another couple came all the way from Ogden, which is 1 1/2 hours away. We put up the ad Wednesday afternoon and one was gone that night. Then again on Thursday, and Friday, then today (with 2 remaining) a guy came and couldn't decide between the two so he just bought both of them! And we got even another call after they were all gone.

So I guess people really do want to give their kid a bunny for Easter!

So, now we're down to 12 bunnies..... I hope 9 more people want bunnies in 6 or 7 weeks....

hoppy easter

Since Jason seems to think our house and yard should be highly comparable to a petting zoo, we have lots of pets. (Very much Jason's idea.)

We have our dog, Maggie. Since last September we have our kitty, Cowboy. Since last May we have had bunnies, Berdi and Benji. Most recently we acquired a loppy named Louis. But before him we had a bunny named Chester for a while. The short time we had Chester, Jason let him have a sleepover with Berdi (the female) for a night. Well, about a month later (yes, rabbits are only pregnant for a month) we doubled our rabbit population.

We found 6 baby bunnies in with the mama... but sadly one died.

But the 5 that survived, well, they are just so stinkin' cute! We let them out to get a little exercise yesterday. Have a little look-see:


The mother is a lion-head, which means she has extra fur around her head and neck. 3 of them have the extra fur and 2 do not. (We actually can't tell two different pairs apart. :) Bunnies don't make it easy when they have the same coloring and length of hair.)

This is the only gray one, he's one of the lion heads:


This one is one of the twin lion heads:


And here is one of the twin non-lion-heads:


All nice and cozy in their travel-to-the-play-area-box:


Just chillin' in their hutch:



With 3 adult rabbits, and 5 baby bunnies, we decided to keep the male and female separate for a while.

But one day in March, we decided to let 2 of the adults get some much needed exercise after a winter of being stuck in a cage. I literally followed them around and kicked off the male any time he got near to the female, because he wasn't exactly behaving himself.....

I'm pretty sure all rabbits need is about 4 seconds to get the job done....

Because on Sunday, Jason found this in the female's cage:


Ha! More babies! (And the five bigger ones were still with her, so there were a lot of bunnies all hanging out together... so we decided it was time to separate them.)

The funny thing is.... I thought the first batch of 6 was big.

Now there are 9. Yes, I said 9! Who has 9 babies! Especially after a 4 second moment!! Only a rabbit. Only a rabbit.

So, yes, if you're doing the math: We now own 17 rabbits. I really hope that people think Easter time means you need to get your kid a rabbit... cuz we have about 6 or 7 that can leave at any time now.

Any takers?

the goings ons arounds here

With Spring coming on, I love to see the flowers coming back. I never seem to remember what I planted the previous year, so I was happy to see these pretty purples come back this year.


And even more happy that they survived this from last weekend:



I guess we jumped the gun on returning the patio furniture to the deck. And that's not where we put them... the wind was pretty strong and moved everything around. I guess we're just lucky the canopy is still intact...



And here are a few pictures from March.

We went to the duck pond one day to feed the ducks and fish and have a picnic. (That was the same weekend my parents had a blizzard at home in North Dakota... weather is a strange thing!)




And isn't it funny how natural it is for kids to put olives on all their fingers? I love it.

And I'm glad it makes them so happy too!

pay it forward

I just love things like this. As I am so excited to receive something from my awesome friend, Heidi, I also look forward to making a few handmade things of my own...

(I can't promise how quick I'll get to it... hopefully before baby comes along and takes up all my time....)

the little jelly bean

Last week I went in for my (hopefully) last ultrasound. My doctor was a little concerned since I was measuring small. So I was anxious to do the ultrasound to make sure she was growing and developing alright.

(At this point you should roughly measure the same amount of cm as you are weeks along. At 31 weeks, I measured 27 cm and at 32 weeks I measured 29 cm.)

The ultrasound definitely put me at ease. She's approximately 5 lbs 2 oz, which for her gestational age, puts her in the 80th percentile. Go figure... how can a kid that big on the charts make me measure small? She must really be packed in there! The amount of kicking and punching she does to me tells me she'd like more room.... sorry baby!

This is a picture of her profile. You can see her little nose towards the upper middle. And her hands are above her face to the top left.

Lady Cook Day

Every so often (maybe once a year or so) the Cook ladies (my mom-in-law and all her daughters and daughters-in-law) get together for a fun filled evening. This time we made it a fun filled day... which was exactly what I needed!

We started the day at JoAnn Fabric to pick out fabric to make a few baby quilts. There are three of us pregnant right now, so it seemed like a fun activity to do as sisters.


Then we went out to lunch, (on Mom's tab since she's awesome! Thanks Mom!)

Yeah, what better place for lunch than this beautiful little restaurant!!


Then we went to my in-laws' house to get to work on the blankets. And of course we talked and talked and talked the whole time!!

We had a delicious salad for dinner, then topped off the evening with some chocolate/white chocolate/caramel dipping.... YUMMM!

We dipped all sorts of yumminess: strawberries, bananas, apples, marshmallows, cinnamon bears, pretzels, Ritz crackers, Rice Krispy Treats and I'm sure there was more that I'm forgetting....

Then we went back to work on the quilts. And thanks to Jason's sister, Holly, (who apparently loves me so much!!) we finished the one we were making for my little one. (Holly was the only one confident enough to sew with the different types of fabric involved with mine!) So I'm glad she was willing to stay up until 12:30 AM with me to finish it!! (She flew in from CA so I knew if we didn't finish it that night... it might never get done!) She did an awesome job!!

Shelly, Jason's little sister who is due 2 weeks before me, got most of her blanket done, she just needs to put the front and back together... and it is super cute too!!

I feel so blessed to have such awesome sisters-in-law... and they are all so creative too! It was so fun to put all our ideas together and come up with some cute stuff. I would never have come up with the design or combination of fabrics on my own, that's for sure! (Thanks Jenny for the awesome design!)

So, since I know you're just dying to see what my baby's first quilt looks like, here it is!



The main part is a "beautiful little princess" that "lived in an enchanted castle."

And on the back is the soft and comfy raised dot minky fabric....


I totally love it and I had so much fun being together with all the girls to pick it out and make it.

It was worth not getting home until 1 am... and being completely exhausted the entire next day!

lil notebooks

Sometime ago for a Relief Society activity I learned how to make new notebooks with old stuff. I made a Lightning McQueen one for Sam and he loves it.... and so does Livia.... so that's why I decided it was time to make more.

They are great for having in church to keep the kids (mostly) quiet, so I thought I'd share the process in case you wanted to make some for your little angels.

Items needed:
A box
Scratch paper
Thread or string
Clamps
Electric drill

First find a box and cut off the front and the back. Some box ideas are fruit snacks, crackers, or cereal. (For a cereal box just cut to the correct size.)


Next find plenty of scratch paper and fold in half (with the used side inside) and put the folded edge on the right side of the new cover. (So the open edge will be in the binding.) And clamp it with clips.


Then mark where the holes need to be drilled and take the edge of a scissors to make a slight cut for the book to open without hurting the binding.

Using an electric drill, make the holes down the left side, making sure to get it all the way through all the pages and back cover.


Take some string or thick thread (I doubled mine) and start the first half of a criss-cross bind. Make sure to keep it tight so it doesn't get too loose when you're done.


Then start the other half of the criss-cross going back down.


And tie off the two loose ends.


And ta-da! You have a new little book with a happy little cover!


And a happy little girl who loves Ariel!


They also work great for stickers... since all kids think they need to pull off every sticker they find and stick it somewhere....