Just some pics I caught of Hallie while going to see the ducks. She LOVES to see ducks. All day long we hear, "quack, quack" until we finally go see them. She gets so mad though that they don't want to get out of the water and just come chill right next to her. She constantly yells, "out!" at them as loud as she can hoping they will listen to her. Maybe if she yells loud enough, they will obey her.

Birthday, Friends and More..

Here's some pics from my birthday. What a fun day we had. I was spoiled rotten. I have such sweet family and great friends. I can't believe I'm 25! I remember when I met Aaron in class and he was turning 25. I thought that was SOOO old (I was 19). And now here I am at that same age. And I finally got some pictures of some of my friends. All the law students that are leaving had a little party and so I had my camera. It's sad that I've lived here for over 3 years and have like no pictures of my friends. Just Hallie and their kids. (Pictured is Tricia, Amie, Andrea, and Sarah and then Candice and Amie in the other.)
Hallie's been so lucky to get to play with lots of her friends lately. She LOVES to play with Rocco and Drew. When they came over she insisted on holding them. Still doesn't realize that they're a little too big but we humored her. As you can tell, she loves to give them kisses too. I should also mention too that Hallie wants to wear her "Rocco Roll" shirt from the March of Dimes every night (it has his picture on it). Abby lives below us and will be moving soon. We will be so sad. She loves to ride her bike with her and yell her name everyday as we walk up to our house.

We've just been hangin out lately. Enjoying the nice spring weather. I am just about 30 weeks now. Getting closer and can't wait! Here's a few more fun pictures:

Having a tea party with Aaron

Hallie sportin some more of my shoes while trying to call Grandma.

Hallie loves to get her potty seat and sit on the toilet. Well, she got a little impatient waiting for me to come help her and tried to do it herself. This is what I found when I came into the bathroom. ooppps...! She had gotten the stool, forgotten to put her seat on top and forgot to take her pants and diaper off. Poor thing. It was pretty funny. I felt bad I was laughing so hard while she was crying and trying to figure out how to get out of the toilet.

Utah Trip

I seem to have gotten a little lazy in the blogging world. Life has just seemed to be so busy lately that I feel like I haven't had a second to myself. So...I've been home for awhile now, but here's some pics from our trip to Utah. It was so fun to just hung out with family and friends. Always so much fun. As usual, I took way too many pictures. It's super late and I'm tired but have to check this off my "to-do list". So I just sorta slapped them all on here. Nothing fancy! oh well.

~ Hallie and my mom cooking dinner~ hanging out with sisters~my adorable Grandpa~Hallie caught with licorice.

If ever I couldn't find Hallie, I knew right where she was. She would sneak downstairs to my Grandps (he lives in the basement apartment), find the stool and manage to reach the tub of Red Vines on the counter and help herself. A few times she'd pull my grandpa's finger to come help her with the lid, and if he saw me he'd say, "oh a little licorice never hurt anybody".

~Gayla (Aaron's mom) and Hallie out to lunch~Nate (Aaron's brother) and Hallie~Bill and Gayla with Hallie's fun new toy~Hallie holding new cousin Katherine.

It was so fun to see all the in-laws. It seems that I never whip out my camera though! And when I try, miss Audrey won't ever let me take a picture of her :0 You turd!

This was the first time that Hallie seemed old enough to enjoy playing and remember her cousins (my sister's kids). And oh my is she ever obsessed with them now! Avery is a year older than Hallie and they play so cute together. Hallie discovered Avery's "big girl" bed one day and we found them in it reading stories together. My personal favorite is that Avery has taught Hallie how to pretend to be a cat, a dog, and a duck. Hallie followed her and Carston around everywhere. Macy is a year younger than Hallie and the bottom picture says it all! She always insisted on holding her and didn't quite realize that she's not so much a little "baby" anymore. Poor Macy. Hallie is literally obsessed with babies. We hear "Maymee" (Macy) quite a bit at our house.

Hallie's other obsession besides babies...SHOES! She's quite talented to walk around in those suckers! She loves to try on everyone's shoes. Lately when I'm getting ready in the morning, she will go in my closet and try on just about every pair of shoes I own and walk around the house in them. It keeps her quite entertained!

My parents took the kids to the Children's Museum one day and they had a blast. Not to dis the museum here, but after going to this one well...it's pretty nice! Hallie had a blast. They had a huge water table that she could've spent all day playing at. She loved it.

Poor Hallie was so spoiled in Utah, it was hard for her to adjust back to only me all day. She was sure excited to see her daddy though. Cute Aaron made her a toy while we were gone though and she loves to play with it everyday! We also finally got rid of the binky when we got home (after some coaxing from my sister Natalie)! Hooray! I did it. And it was so much better than I thought it'd be. I had her throw it away in the big garbage can outside and explained that binkies were for babies and she's a big girl now. I took her to the store and let her pick out a toy and stuff. It's been really good. Everytime we walk past the garbage can though, she points to it and says "binky, baby". It's pretty funny.

Anyways..there's a lot of random post! I can check it off the list of things done!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JORDAN

Happy Birthday to my cute brother Jordan! I love him to death. I always loved his birthday because then we could tell everyone that we were the same age. We're only 11 months apart so when we were little, I would love to tell people we were twins. I was always secretly a little sad when my birthday came and we had to wait a whole other year to say it again. A funny memory that we joke about was when we were in high school. We had a class together and one day we were sitting on opposite sides of the room trying to talk to each other. The teacher interrupts his lesson, thinks he's going to crack this great joke and says, "Excuse me Jordan. You can get her number after class. I'm trying to teach a lesson." We both laughed so hard. Jordan's response back was, "Well that's alright, I already have her number. It's the same as mine!" Good times. I could go on with memories but I will spare everyone else.
Here's just a few things I love about him. And I found some sweet pictures Jord! Gotta love em. We look homeless in all of them!

He is an AMAZING baseball player! I love to go to his games and watch him play. I don't know anyone that loves this game more than him.

He has such a sweet heart. Has always had a soft side to him that I just adore.

(Except when he steals my Diet Coke! ha ha. Looks like I was an addict back then. j/k. My mom would justify herself by saying this can was NOT open. We were only playing. Sure mom :))

He has a great sense of humor. Can always make me laugh.

(We were awesome dressers!)

He has always watched out for me and been a great protective brother!

I'm loving the outfits! Thanks mom. Jelly shoes and socks for me. Different laces and socks for Jord. Sweet!

He is so cute to Hallie and all kids.

Love you Jord! Hope you had a good birthday!

Stay tuned for Utah pics...I'm a slacker!

Spur of the Moment...

Well...Hallie and I are in Utah! Surprise! We are quite spontaneous! My mom called me the other day at about 12 and said, could you come today at 4? She had found a super good deal. So we left the mall, ran home and threw stuff in our bags and CAME!!! With everything going on, it was such a great time for us to come. So we are glad to be here. I was getting so homesick. I've only been here a few days and haven't taken many pics, but here's a few for you Aaron so you can see your cute babe! She's lovin it with all the attention. Miss you lots.

Hallie loved the plane. She was entertained the majority of the first ride with her seat belt buckle.

I always have the BEST luck with flying. Our flight got SUPER delayed and we were stuck in Cincinnati for 6 hours. We didn't leave until midnight! Yeah for us. Good thing I have the best little girl ever. Then we finally get into UT and they lost all my luggage. But don't worry! They gave me a free t-shirt and toothbrush. So we were looking pretty for a day and a half. ha ha.

This is at about 11:30 at night. Still happy, wired and loving the little water bottle and crackers they gave her.

Today we had a fun day. My little sis Chelsey just got engaged and we went to a Bridal Fair, lunch and did some dress shopping. It was a long day of fun. The highlights of my day were hearing that my little niece Avery is "allergic to people", having someone at the fair ask when my wedding date was and offer me a bridal planner (with Hallie and my belly in tow), and having a boy (who couldn't have been older than 25) pick up on my mom! Good times.

Do you think Hallie's pooped? She found this big couch while Chelsey was trying on dresses and plopped down. Then she asked me to scratch her back and she kept saying, "more". What a cutie.

Hallie and Grandpa hangin out. I love being able to see my Gramps. He is so darn cute. I took a picture before this and he said, "should I put my hat on and we could take it again?" We went to the good ol' Dillards sale yesterday and he was so cute finding some shirts. He loves to find a good deal. I just love spending time with him. What a cutie. Hallie likes to go downstairs because she knows right where his stool is to get to the counter and reach his big tub of Red Vines.

We miss you Aaron!! Thanks for letting us come play for a bit! I'll try to keep the pictures coming for ya.

Bikes, Bellies and The Claw

Nothing too overly exciting going on around here. Here's some pics to keep the fam happy. And I can't believe I suckered into posting my ugly self and belly, but there you go! You crazy people! Hallie LOVES to be outside and push her bike around and blow bubbles. Everyday the first words out of her mouth are, "bike, bubbles, dada". She cries every time we come inside and anytime we go down our stairs to get in the car, she makes sure to tell the bubbles and the bike, "bye-bye". As soon as Aaron gets home she gets her shoes on and heads to the door with him. Lucky Hallie that her dad is so nice to take her everyday.

23 weeks. (can you tell by my fake smile how thrilled I am to take a pic of my body? Please pardon the roots, I finally got them done after this.)
Who doesn't love pudding?
Notice anything a little odd?
how about now?

So, if you can't tell by the pictures Aaron had a little injury. He thought it'd be fun to fracture his finger in five different spots. Poor guy. He was trying to catch his gym bag off a balcony and his finger got stuck in the strap on the way down. Ouch! I have to giggle at his brace. Just call him the claw!

Happy Easter

I for sure have inherited my dad's trait of taking LOTS of pictures. I used to get so mad when I was little, but now I know just how he feels. I just want to capture every minute of Hallie's experiences! I'm a dork. So yes, there's lots of pictures, but we had such a fun Easter I couldn't resist. It's so fun to celebrate holidays with Hallie now that she is a little older and can enjoy them a little more. I just love it. What a great weekend we had as a family. Easter was a great day. Started off with the traditional bunny bread for breakfast (a little deformed this year. But hey! We leave to church at 8:30!), went to church, took a nap, had dinner with a friend, and watched Hallie dance and goof with Aaron. What a great day! Hope you all had a good Easter too.

Egg Decorating

We had our first family egg dying party. Hallie thought it was pretty fun. She loved coloring on them, dipping them in the dye and putting stickers on them. She was her daddy's little buddy and wanted to do everything he was doing. We had lots of fun. She thought it was so fun to have an egg hunt around our house with them, but didn't want to pick them up unless they had candy in them. The only downer to this easter egg thing is that now when I ask if she wants eggs for breakfast in the morning (which she LOVES) she thinks I'm meaning her candy eggs!

Ward Easter Party

Our church had an easter party and Hallie had a blast. She was so excited to go and take her little duck basket (thanks Aunt Dicksy) and wear her ears. She enjoyed playing with her friends, going on an egg hunt, making a craft with her dad and watching Aaron participate in the egg eating contest (gross!).

IT'S A...

GIRL !!!

We are SOOO very excited to be having another GIRL! We had our ultrasound on Monday and it was so neat. I just loved being able to see this sweet little baby inside me. How amazing it is and lucky I am. She was being so cute. She was just chilling down in my pelvis sucking her thumb, playing with her little toes and hangin out. I can't wait to see the little cutie.

20 Months

I can't believe Hallie is 20 months old. Seriously, time just flies. She is our cute little bug and we just love her to pieces. Here's a few things she's up to:

1. She is super independant these days. Wants to get dressed by herself, put her shoes on by herself, coat, walk (unless she sees her shadow :)). This would all be great if she could actually do this in a decent time!

Our little alien gets ready to go ALL by herself!

2. Still has an obsession with Elmo. Although it has expanded a little to "Sesame Street" now. She loves these characters as well. Our day isn't complete without us hearing about "Grover, Big Bird, Bert, Zoe, Ernie, Snuffy, Cookie Monster and Oscar."

3. She is very shy. It takes her a LONG time to warm up to people in a group. She'd rather just sit on the sidelines and observe everything going on.

4. She LOVES to pretend. At such an early age, she's been into playing house, babies, doctor, kitchen, makeup (sorry Aaron), dress-ups, etc. It is so fun to watch her.

5. She loves to read books and sing songs with her Daddy. E-I-E-I-O is a nightly request.

6. Loves to say the word "Boo!" when she wants your attention. We hear this one quite a bit too.

7. Ever heard of someone being afraid of their own shadow? Well, Hallie sure is! She just noticed it last week and if she's walking and spots it, she freaks out and just stands there and cries until I pick her up. It is actually pretty funny. This is going to be a long summer if we don't get over this little fear! ha ha.

8. She loves babies!!! Real ones, pretend one, the one in my tummy...Everyday she is constantly coming up to me with kissy lips, saying "baby" and wants to kiss my stomach. Whenever we go to the children's museum that's all she wants to play with as well. And has to take her pretend baby with her everywhere. Let's hope this love for babies stays around after I've had mine :)

We just love our little Hallie. She is so fun, so adorable and I feel like the luckiest person alive to be able to have her. She really is my little buddy.

My New Shades

Hallie is quite the character sometimes. This last weekend, Aaron and Hallie accompanied me to the grand ol' Hobby Lobby (for those of you not in Iowa, you are SO missing out! ha ha.). Well, they went their separate way from me and awhile after shopping, I could hear Hallie laughing and yelling, "ma ma, ma ma!" Next, I see her strutting her stuff down the aisles with these hot shades and a cup (one Dora, one Elmo) in each hand. She was on cloud nine just having a blast with Daddy and suckering him in to lots of fun gadgets. Well, it's time to check out and I tell Hallie she needs to take her sunglasses off so we can pay for them. Holy Cow! Seriously, you would have thought that I told her Elmo had died or something. Tears just start streaming down her face in seconds and she was bawling! Aaron and I just looked at each other like, "who is this girl?" We had never seen her so devastated. It was pretty comical. Needless to say, we quickly paid for them, put them back on and she still wants to wear them everywhere! And she always informs me that "daddy" got them for her along with her 2 new cups that she has to use every morning. What a fun dad!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINDS!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINDSEY PACK! Lindsey is one of my bestest friends in the whole world. We've been friends since the 7th grade and I have SO many wonderful memories with her. She's been there through thick and thin and I love her stinkin guts (I even stole that saying from her :)) I love that even though we live far away now, whenever we see each other or talk we just pick up right where we left off. She's the best! I'm the worst friend ever and haven't even sent a card! (sorry Linds). Happy B-day!

I'm way sad, cause I wanted to find a pic from back in the day, but there all shoved in a box under my bed. Maybe one of these days, I'll look!

BFF

Okay, I'm sorry, but seriously! What man at age 28 wears a Best Friend Necklace?? And on National TV? No wonder he got voted off. Ewww. I couldn't help but cringe the whole time he was singing. I kept telling Aaron, "Ew, there is just something about him that grosses me out." And then I saw a close up of his BFF necklace, and that explained it all! ha ha. The best part is that he was wearing it again tonight! Let's just say that I'm glad BFF boy is gone. I'm such a brat. Lovin Idol!

ABC Tagged

Nothing too exciting going on here, so I thought I'd do this tag that my friend Whitney tagged me on.

ABC Tag
A- Attached or single: Attached
B- Best Friend: Aaron of course, mom and sisters
C- Cake or Pie: Cake
D- Day of Choice: Whatever day Aaron gets off.
E- Essential Item: Diet Dr. Pepper, mascara
F- Favorite Color: periwinkle
G- Gummi Bears or Worms: both. I love any candy!
H- Hometown: Orem, Utah, currently Iowa
I- Indulgence(s): shopping, chocolate covered strawberries
K- Kids: 1 and 1 more on the way!
L- Life is incomplete without: a nice fountain drink, family and friends
M- Marriage Date: June 12, 2003
N- Number of Siblings: 2 brothers, 2 sisters, and 1 brother in law
O- Oranges or Apples: Apples
P- Phobias or Fears: Being trapped in an elevator or somewhere small. I'm claustrophobic.
Q- Quote(s): "Let no one come into your life without leaving better and happier", "Live today as if it were your last."
R- Restaurant: The Olive Garden, Cafe Rio
S- Season: Spring and Summer. NOT winter!
T- Tag Six: Anybody!
U- Unknown Fact About Me: umm...Although, I'm an elementary teacher, I get super nervous to speak in public (to adults).
V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: Vegetarian
W- Worst Habit: Apologizing obsessively
X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds: Ultrasounds (we find out in a week and 1/2!)
Y- Your Favorite Food: Shells N' Cheddar, French fries. (healthy huh? Can you tell I'm prego??)
Z: Zodiac: Taurus

Mother of the Year/Valentine's Day

Does my child look neglected? We have both been quite sick these last few days and poor Hallie has had to suffer since I feel like two bricks are smashing my head together. Today has been lots better, but poor Hallie has a temp of 103. This is where I found her today. Guess she thought it'd be easier to get her toys if she just crawled on in. And do you love how she got herself something to eat? Please disregard the fact that it was the middle of the afternoon and she's still in her Pj's with snot running down her face, hair not combed! So needless to say, I do not win the mother of the year award! My sweet husband has been so wonderful! Cleaning house, taking Hallie all weekend, going out in butt cold weather to get me my craving!!! He's the best!

Also had to show how cold it is here. This frost and ice is on the INSIDE of our windows! These pictures don't even do it justice. And yes, we turn our heat up high, it just can't keep it warm enough. It has been so awful here. We had another huge ice/snow storm and everything has been cancelled (church, school). Oh, we LOVE this winter (hope you sense the sarcasm)!

We were able to have a great Valentines. Aaron and I were able to go out to my favorite restraurant The Olive Garden. It was SO great. We couldn't even remember the last time we'd been out on a date. It was so great to be able to spend time with my hubby. Hallie enjoyed getting lots of Valentines from family and friends. I'll have to say that "Bampa" is her favorite these days because he sent her the new Elmo movie. We love you all and hope you know how much we appreciate all you do for us! Happy Love Day!

And I couldn't resist putting this adorable picture of Rocco on here (my friend Sarah's baby). He is SO cute. I got to watch him last week and it was so fun. He never stopped smiling. Thanks Sarah and JD for letting me play with him!