And Then There Were 3........

Well, 2 and 1/3. That's right, we're gonna have another baby in the house! I am 13 weeks along. This baby is due June 13th, one day before Alyssa was due. So far this pregnancy has been alot like with Lyss. Pretty nauseus in the begining but begining to feel more normal now. We are really excited and the girls are too! I hope Hallie is still excited when it actually comes because she has herself a jealous bone!

Other than that things are just puttin along here in our house. I am almost done Christmas shopping, trying to think of a few last minute items. We had a great Thanksgiving with my family but I am AWFUL about taking my camera so there are no pictures of the festivities.

Today I was vacuuming upstairs and the girls wanted to watch A Christmas Story.  So I turned it on and went upstairs. When I came back down Hallie was out! This is a first at our house. Alyssa has never just fallen asleep on her own while she was around people or things going on. Hallie will go to sleep if we rock a bye but this was a first! She slept like that for about 45 minutes. She is soooooo yummy when she's asleep.

Halllie is my little buddy while Lyss is at school. The other day I was getting ready to exercise and I put a head band on and pulled my hair up. THen she wanted her own head band and a pony tail. She also loves to put my makeup on. She is growing up so fast and has become quite the tease. The other day she took something from Alyssa and Lyss asked if she would give it back. Hallie said yes but didn't move. So Lyss asked again and Hallie said "not yet!" then laughed. Alyssa is not so good at taking the teasing which makes it even more amusing for Hallie.....and me!

October Fun

We had lots of fun this Halloween. Lyss started it off on the Thursday before with a Halloween party at school. They all got to wear their costumes and she had soooooo much fun. Then Friday night we had our ward Trunk-or-Treat. That's always a good time. On MOnday.....Halloween.....I had no intention of taking the girls real trick-or-treating but somehow was guilted into being a good mom! So we went and hit 5 houses. They bothed LOVED Halloween this year. They would sing...Trick or treat smell my feet give me something good to eat. If you don't I don't care I'll throw your pumkin in the air! They played trick-or-treat like every second and would fly around on our broom. I was going to be a witch with her 2 black cats, but the witch hat drove me NUTS so I didn't. BUt Lyss wanted Jake to be a chef and we were actually able to borrow a chef hat from someone so her dressed up. 

Wooo Hoooo....Look Who's 2!

Happy birthday to my sweet Hallie! She turned 2 on the 14th. We had a fun day with her. Some things about Hallie:

* She loves to play with baby dolls. She got a doll with a swing and she plays with it.....and won't share with Lyss.....all the time.

*She is in a big girl bed as of a week ago. And no she isn't doing super well.....she loves her freedom. She always ends up on the floor on Jake's side of the bed. She loves her daddy.

*She loves to play Ring Around the Rosies.

*She has got some serious sass....or mean. There have been a few times as of late that she has come to me with a fist full of Lyssie's hair.

* She LOVES Alyssa and they play sooooo much together so they do fight like sisters!

*Her favorite candy is starbursts.

 

We went to lunch at McDonalds and had Chicken nuggets.....Those just might be her favorite food. She loves the dinosaur ones from Costco the very best.

Hallie Cat's Cat cake. She picked its color to be orange. And I am kinda proud of this cake.

 Snarfing!

Happy birthday my sweet girl! We love you sooooo much!

LySiE's fIrsT DaY OF pReSchOOl

Like many of you out there, I too sent my oldest to her first day of preschool yesterday. But I was suprisingly ok with the whole thing! Lyss has been talking about going to MISS LEANNE'S preschool for about a year now!(Although when we got there yesterday she did kinda squeeze onto my hand....just a little bit! Maybe that was for my benefit!) All of her friends who are a year older went to it last year and raved! Also Miss Leanne is in our ward. I guess that is very comforting to me......I know her pretty well, and most of the kids in her class are in our ward or were in our ward or we know. So I guess this made it not feel so much like sending my little LYssie into the big bad world. Now next year may be a different story! So her schedule is 3 days a week for 3 hours a day. Just enough to help break me in for all day kindergarten. :(  

The entrace to the preschool is through the garage, so when I go pick her up the teacher has them all lined up like this waiting when she opens the door. Sooooo cute! Then she dismisses them when she knows that the person picking up is aware of the child coming.

 Walking to the car with her friend. She's kinda short!!! And she looks so big!

Some things about Alyssa:

• She LOVES being with friends! She is still my super social butterfly!
• She has the most intense, expressive eyes! When she is running.....any kind of running......her eyes get so intense like she's running the most important race of her life!
• She plays "house" ALL the time! I can remember doing that too! As soon as she gets with her friends, boy or girl, she says "Do you want to be the mom/dad?"
• She is such a good big sister! The other night I tried having her and Hallie sleep in the same room. Hallie started crying and Lyssa said "Don't cry.....listen to my song." and she stared singing to her. Hallie stopped crying and Lyssie sang to her. So sweet.
• Her favorite show is GOod Luck Charlie
• Her favorite food is probably spaghetti.
• Her favorite treat just might be Oreos....like her momma!!!

I love this girl so much! Goodluck Lyssie!

Walla Walla Fair 2011

We ventured to the fair again this year. The girls had a good time in the kids farm center area. It's my favorite part because its all free stuff! The fair is so crazy expensive!

We let the girls ride on 2 rides. They chose the jump house.....

And the Merry-Go-Round. They both loved them!

On Saturday night Jake and I went to the Rodeo at the fair. It was soooo much fun! We'll have to go to it again next year!

YEEEE HAW!

Last Monday night we went out and watched some people in our ward do some calf roping. When we first got there, Hallie went into the "arena" area with Jake, but Lyss was very adomant about staying outside the fence. Then the mom and daughter got there and the daughter asked Alyssa if she wanted to go for a ride on the horse. Lyssa said yes so we went into just a fenced area with cows and that was as far as she wanted to got.......long story short, we took baby steps and she ended up riding on the horse. For those of you who don't think this is such a big deal, it is! Lyss is terrified of animals, except Grandma's cats! Today at the Farmer's Market here in town they had a few horses, and Lyss pet one of them. PROGRESS!

Summer Activities

We are still alive! I have been a huge slacker as far as blogging goes so here's a little catch up. Some if the things we've been doing this summer are:

Jake had a birthday! He turned the big 3-2! We went to Coeurd lane his birthday weekend and spent some time with friends.

I love my husband DEARLY, but he is soooo hard to buy gifts for! So this birthday I put together a candy bar poster for him. 

 We have also been:

Building tents. The girls will play in this kind of structure for quite some time. Alyssa is soooo into playing house right now and Hallie is getting good at being told what to do. They're so fun to watch!

We even:

Made is to the pool in Pendleton. This pool is awesome! It gradually gets deeper, and it has slides just the right size for the girls. They had sooo much fun there! 



  

 And then:

We went to my family reunion. This year we went to Jackson, WY. My dad grew up there, so we went and saw some of the places he lived, went to Jenny Lake, hiked up to Hidden Falls, and spent some time in downtown Jackson. We camped in the Gros Vente just outside of Jackson. I think one of my favorite parts was seeing the Tetons! They are so amazing to me!

This is at my Grandpa and Grandma Tanner graves.

 The girls actually slept really well! The first night we were there, it started raining at 10 P.M and didn't stop until almost 3:30 A.M. And it was a pretty hard rain! Water was dripping on my head and our pillows were wet and the next morning one of mine and one of Alyssa's shoes were soaking wet! BUt the rest of the time the weather was perfect!

A couple of funny things the girls have said:

Alyssa- WE were at my parents house and they have a cat in the house. Alyssa came into the bedroom me and my mom were in and said, " Grandma the touched Buttercup (the cat) and his purr was on!" Me and my mom busted up laughing! What a cute way of putting that!

Halllie- Hallie doesn't like nursery. She has gone 1 time for the last hour by herself. I usually sit in there with her for the first hour and then JAke usually just takes her with him to Elders Quorm. BUt today Jake decided he was gonna let her cry in nursery. So after church I went and found them. JAke told me that he had left her in there and how when he went to get her she was mad at him and clung to the nursery leader! So a little later I asked Hallie if she had gone to nursery. She said yea. Then she gets a sad little voice and says, " Ma daddy weft me." (She says ma or my before she talks about her daddy and her Lyssie!) It was the cutest thing! Then she kept saying it the whole way home!

Do they have to grow up????!!!!



Despain Reunion 2011

We just got back from the Despain reunion.We go up on the Big Horn mountians. It was a good time!!! We had tons of fun playing cowboy golf....I made it further than Jake in the tournament!!!...., playing frisbee basketball....a new addition to the reunion that seemed to be a hit!......, and eating LOTS of yummy food! Thanks to all ya'll Despains!

We went through Bozeman on the way and stayed in a motel, so we went swimmin'. The girls were so excited. Doesn't Hallie look cute in her little head band she has to wear beacause of her tubes?!

 Hallie was somewhat of a nightmare while camping. I held her ALOT!!! and sleep wasn't really on her agenda until the last night we were there!

 Grandma Patty, Hallie, Josie and half of Taylor

 Lyssie and Grandpa Carvel.....I love this picture! I think that where Lyss ate every meal!

 Beautiful girls!....

 Hallie finally warming up to Tillie the dog! This dog is probably the perfect dog and my girls were so scared of it and the other perfect dog that was up there until the last day.....man they coulda been havin fun!

 Fishin with her new pole at Sibley lake

 Hallie's turn.....or in her words, " ma tun"

 All but 2 of the grandkids with their Easter eggs. Gramma and grampa fill them with candy and a dollar and then we do a hunt while we're campin.

 Aren't we cute???! I just love this guy!

 We did  a little spa party while people went fishin. Aunt Sally painted alot of nails!

Lots of fun! I love summer!! Now we need to get closer so we don't have to drive so long.....the drive nearly kills us all....or we nearly kill each other!

More fun VIDEOS!!!

Alyssa got a fishing pole for her birthday as you may have already read. She is getting good at casting it! THe rubber fish on the end helps. It's so fun watching her do it!

Also on her birthday her and some friends got to play in the sprinkler. Lyss was kinda timid about it an when she would get in it she would shield her eyes so they did get water in them. Hallie on the other hand was a crazy girl in them! She loves playing in water.

My BIG 4 Year Old!!!!

I can't believe my little Lyssie is 4! She looks so old in that top picture. So Lyss had a pretty special day I think.....It started with PRESENTS! She seemed excited with her presents which is always a relief because so many times I'll get something thinking she'll love it and she 's not that excited about it. He biggies were a scooter...." a princess scooter with 2 wheels".......to be exact. I couldn't believe I actually found just that at Kmart! THen she's been asking for a princess fishing pole for a while now so we found one of those! She wanted oranges for breakfast, and we went to McDondalds for lunch. Then she got to play with a friend in the sprinkler....yes! finally warm enough to be in the sprinkler!... We had dinner and cake with some friemds this evening and she is currently at a Sweets baseball game with Jake and some friends. I love this SASSY girl so much! She is so helpful with with Hallie and I don't know what I'll do next fall when she starts preschool and is gone for 3 hours a day, 3 days a week! Some of her faorites are:

~ GOOD LUCK CHARLIE...a TV show on Disney.

~ POPSICLES.....the tubey ones!

~ BEING OUTSIDE W/ FRIENDS!

~ FRUIT....basically any kind!

~ GOING TO SEE DAD AT WORK

What We've been up to.......

Well the first thing I've been up to is breaking my camera! BOOOOOO! I dropped right on the lense when it was open. The funny thing.....I guess....Is that Jake did the same thing to our last camera. We shall never own a super expensive camera!

But what we've been up to.....this last Monday me and the girls got back from our super road trip. 6 states......WA, OR, ID, MT, ND, and WY.......and 3 time zones.....We made it back in one piece. It was such a fun trip to go to my sister's new house in ND and see where/what its like! It was a beautiful area with an oil well righ out their window. One of my other sisters went to  so it was alot of fun with lots of family. On our way out there, we stayed in Bozeman....me and my sister w/ 6 kids. So I got to the hotel before her and went in to see if there were rooms for us. The girl working asked how many adults in each room....1......how many kids in each room.....4.......HOW did 2 adults get stuck traveling with 8 kids!!!? She ended up giving me the AAA discount even though neither of us have AAA because "2 adults traveling with 8 kids deserve a break somewhere!" Hey I'm cool with that! The girls both slept sooooo well the whole time we were gone and the trip was so good that I'm counting down the days till our next one!

We have had some nicer weather and today we played kickball and had a BBQ with friends. ANd it looks like we're gonna have some nice weather for a while!

SOmeday when we ever get a new camera, I'lll put some pics on!

OVER DUE......with picture overload!!!