busy, busy, busy

Scott's small group had a little get together last night. I was excited to see my new friend Courtney again, because she is only 6 days more pregnant that I am. I was actually a little relieved to see that she was showing a little bit too. I don't remember showing this early with K or E. I did place an Old Navy order for a few maternity clothes, although I really hope I don't need them until November/December. I am 11 weeks, and Courtney is 12 weeks now with her first baby. Here's a pic...
Here are the girls playing on the playground at the school behind the house we were at:



This morning we had back to back soccer games. Kate played AWESOME, and Ella...well, it's more about socializing with friends that are on the other team. :)


Here is Ella just before going to a birthday party today:
OU plays tonight. So I need to quit blogging, and get to work on the house. We seem to be in a constant whirlwind of activities. I am tired and not feeling so hot today...I just told Scott that he needs to pick up something for dinner because I'm not cooking tonight. Maybe, just maybe when I hit week 12, my morning sickness will magically go away.

bribery works

A couple of weeks ago our soccer games were rained out. Ella's make up game was last night. Kate had girl scouts, so Scott was able to take Ella to her game. Kate and I arrived about halfway through the game. I was surprised to see Ella out there really getting in there and kicking the ball. She was trying harder than she ever had before. She is usually dancing around the ball, and then letting everyone else kick the ball. Scott said, "Yeah, you just have to talk to her." So I'm thinking,--Okay, a little pep talk goes a long way, I'll have to try that with her next time.-- But then she ran over to Scott and shouted, "I kicked the ball 5 times!! Can I get my sucker now?" So Scott had bribed her with SUCKERS--I knew there had to be more than just a little pep talk. Of course everyone heard Ella yell that out, and it was pretty funny. Here are some pics...

what to do with all these apples?

My neighbor Trish brought over a bag of apples yesterday. They are from her neighbor's backyard. So now I need a good apple baking recipe, but we aren't big on apple pie. Any ideas??

And look at this cute little toad that was on our sidewalk this morning...

I'm hopping on the treadmill. I'm fighting a MONSTER headache today.

**My grandmother just emailed me 2 recipes, now I just have to figure out which one to try, I think I'm leaning towards the cake.**Thanks Grandma!** I think I'm also going to try my friend Lacy's trick and substitute applesauce for oil.

Guess who's riding a 2-wheeler??

Ella is!! This morning Scott was adjusting the girls bike seats, and I ran outside to tell him to go ahead and take off Ella's training wheels. He looked up at me with a look on his face that said..."Are you kidding me? She's not ready." I said "Just trust me, she's mastered the 2-wheeled scooter and I really think she's ready." I said I would run down our street with her a few times. Ella was excited and willing to try, and I ran up and down the street with her twice helping her balance. After that, she had it! Scott was amazed and took over for me, then taught her how to turn and stop, although she needed very little instruction. She was very ready. We are so proud of her.



Here's a video:

soccer games today...

Here are several pictures. Kate did great! Ella is fighting a little cold, so she sat out a lot of the time, but she did play hard when she needed to...there is one picture somewhere in there from Ella's game. I took so many because Scott had class today. You can double click on the pictures to enlarge them, then you can see that Kate's tongue is sticking out nearly in every picture. :)












Then we came home and I snapped one picture of Kate and Carley. It's so hot outside, but the girls have been out all day.

dogs

Here is Cupid under our armoire, she heard the bath water come on. Smart dog, she knows we can't get her under there.
And my mom sent a box for the girls and the dogs. Angel knows when it's a "nana box" and guards it until it is opened.

I like this picture of Amelia Bedelia by Kate...

just a little update on us...

We are doing well. The girls are liking school. It's about a mile away, so I walk there to pick them up and they walk home with me. The school has over 1,000 kids, and there are no organized carpool/pick-up procedures which drives me nuts, so it takes us the same amount of time to walk as it would me picking them up. They prefer to walk anyways. Actually today I'm going to walk up there with their scooters so maybe we can be a little faster today.

I have been spending my days just getting things done: grocery shopping, laundry, dishes, walking the dogs, getting on the treadmill. The days are flying by. I'm feeling a little bit better. Peppermints are the best thing for me to keep from getting nauseous. Until today, I had not noticed a change in the way I was fitting into my jeans...but all of the sudden my jeans seem a little bit tight. I'm into my 9th week, and I would not be surprised if I've actually lost a little weight during this first trimester. I eat mostly salads, I cannot stand any kind of meat right now. My only strange craving is APPLES...I cannot get enough apples. I remember craving pineapple juice when I was pregnant with Kate, and I don't remember any special cravings when I was pregnant with Ella. A lot of people have asked me, "Do you think you are having a boy?" I have have NO idea, I've never had good intuition when it comes to that. I thought for sure I was having a boy when I was pregnant with Ella. Of course Scott would like to have one for his team, but the girls and I are routing for another girl. :)

Kate's enjoying her 2nd grade class. Her favorite color is now blue, and soccer is her favorite sport. She's really good this year, especially if she's playing defense. She's able to get the ball away from anyone, it cracks me up because she giggles as she steals the ball away. Kate is also taking dance classes and is in girl scouts this year. She's gotten really good on her bike, so Scott has been taking her on bikes rides to Dairy Queen to get ice cream. Everyday after school our yard is full of kids...mostly 2nd grade girls, I love it, it reminds me of my childhood. Oh, and now she REFUSES to wear skirts or dresses. Yeah, I know...what happened to my Kate???

Ella is growing. She loves school; she makes friends quickly. On the second day of taking her into school, kids kept running up to her and hugging her...even kids from other classes. Her favorite dance class is hip hop, imagine that. She's really getting good on her 2-wheeled scooter, so I'm itching to take the training wheels off of her bike. She loves to cuddle and be read to. She is just starting to read "Bob Books", and is so proud of herself when she completes one. She loves it when her little friend David comes over to play after school, although I have to watch them carefully when he's over. Ella just started eating more vegetables, but she insists on dipping her green beans in honey, and dipping carrots in ketchup...hey, whatever works.

Scott is doing very well with school. He's doubled his workload by finishing up his Master's degree alongside staff college. This is still such a nice break for him after being deployed. When he is home, he's usually studying...but occasionally procrastinates and spends some time with us.

I guess that's about it. The dogs are tanning on the deck, we've have some beautiful days here in Kansas. We also LOVE all of our friends here. One of the kindergarten teachers at school went to high school with Scott in Japan. Small world! So we had her and her family over for dinner this weekend, it was great. I've rambled enough, I've got to pick the girls up from school in a little bit.

Toma!

We were so excited to see our friend Toma today. She is a dear friend of ours from when we lived in Japan, and also in Monterey. She happened to be in our area on business, so we took her to the T-Rex restaurant. *We love you Toma!*

school for the girls...

Well, Scott and I made the decision to go ahead and put the girls in public school this year. I really had a heart for homeschooling, but then after dealing with non-stop morning sickness, I'm not giving 100% to the girls. I eat breakfast, and then try for the next 2 hours just to hold it down...and really it just continues through most of the day. I hope that this phase passes SOON, but for now the girls going to school is best. They will not have to deal with a grumpy mom that is feeling sick on a daily basis....well, they will, but not during school hours. We talked with the girls, and Ella is thrilled to go to school. Kate is more hesitant, but she'll be fine. When the baby is here in April, this will also give me alone time with the baby, plenty of time to rest and recover from sleepless nights. So I'm going to relax and pray that Scott and I made the right decision for them.

music to my ears...

Today I went in for my first OB appoitment. I'm 8 weeks and 2 days along. I really liked my new Dr. After the exam, I asked if I could hear the heartbeat, I'm know I'm early but it doesn't hurt to ask. She said, "You know, I start to listen for the heartbeat around 12 weeks, and I've never been able to hear it at 8 weeks....and I don't want to cause any anxiety if you don't hear it." I was a little disappointed thinking that we weren't going to try to hear it today, but then she said, "Let's go ahead and try, you might be the first." She also said it was highly unlikely that we would hear anything because I am one of those women with a tilted uterus. After about 20 seconds, she picked up the baby's heartbeat! It was wonderful, tears flooded my eyes, I was SO SO thankful to hear it.

proud soccer mom here...

The girls just had their first soccer games today. Naturally, the games were scheduled at the same time...and Scott has classes this weekend. It wasn't easy being two places at one time, but I did manage to get a few pictures of both K and E. They had a BLAST! Ella was switched to this particular team because her jersey had already been ordered when she was on Kate's team, so the girls have the same team colors. Ella had her choice of numbers to pick from, and she chose to be #5. :) Kate is #8. Kate's team decided to be called the "Tornados", and Ella's team hasn't decided on a team name yet. I can't wait for Scott to see them play next weekend. We've got games the next 8 weeks, thankfully always on the same set of soccer fields. They played HARD!

just pictures today...

We have been so busy, and blogging is just not a priority, so bear with me the next few weeks. I'll try to post a couple of pics here and there at least once a week.

Zoo pics...