Birthday Weekend

Last weekend was a big one at our house! Abbey turned 6 on the 6th, I turned 28 on the 7th, and Avery turned 1 year old on the 8th!! It was pretty crazy! We had a big birthday party on the 6th and we were all so spoiled. Abbey got tons of new clothes, new Tag books, money, and lots of other fun things. Avery also got tons of new clothes, a baby Cabbage Patch doll, and a busy ball popper (which was the life of the party). We had a great time celebrating with all of our family.

Avery loved her cake, she was really mad at me when I finally took it away from her. She loves sugar just like her momma!

Avery also had her one year check-up last week. She weighs in at a whopping 18 lbs! She is in the 5th percentile for her weight. I forgot to check her height, but she is in the 75th percentile there. She has had a cold, but at the appointment I found out that it is actually an ear infection. We started her on regular milk and stopped using bottles. She has done really well so far. She started to take a few steps on her birthday, but she still hasn't mastered walking. She will just crawl if she wants to get anywhere because that is faster for her. We also bought her a new carseat. She can't face forward yet because they changed the carseat recommendations so that kids have to be 30 lbs and 2 years before they can switch. Usually we buy gender nuetral carseats since we always wanted more kids, but now that we know our next (and last) baby will be a girl, I went with a pink seat.

My actual birthday was on Superbowl Sunday. I was not really happy about that because the last thing I wanted to do was watch football on my birthday. It turned out ok though, we hung out with David's family. We had pizza and snacks and for my birthday cake we had Leatherby's ice cream cake. It was SO yummy!

Discovery Gateway

A couple weeks ago I took the girls to Discovery Gateway. They were so excited and I had a really hard time getting them to leave.

NEW YEARS!!!

My little cutie pie! I just love this girl!
Me and Anya

Me and my lunatic hubby

David and Ashley's self portrait

Playing Band Hero

We had such a fun New Year's bash! David and I love to party and play games, so we usually host the party at our house. Our awesome friends, Chad and Anya, were in town from Indianapolis so that we could continue our tradition of hanging out on New Year's. We have celebrated together for the last 4 years! We also had all of my married siblings and their kids over too. My parents came for a little while, and then headed to another party. We played a bunch of games and had so much fun! Alyssa and Abbey were determined to stay up till midnight and they did! They wanted to have some sparkling cider with the rest of us. Thanks to everyone who came and hung out with us! We had such an awesome party. And thanks to all of my neighbors who let us use their spare parking spots!

My Sweet Alyssa...

My sweet Alyssa turned 8 on December 23rd. I can't believe how fast eight years has gone by! Today was the day she was baptized. She was so excited to be able to get baptized! She really has been looking forward to this day for a long time. I still remember the day she was born into our family. We are so blessed to have her and we are so proud of her and her example. We gave her a set of brand new scriptures with her name on them. She was so happy to finally have her very own set. We love you sweetheart!

Christmas Festivities!

We have had such a busy holiday season! I will give you the rundown of all that happened in a nutshell! The Sunday before Christmas we always celebrate with David's Dad, Becky, and brothers. We always have a yummy meal and open presents. It was a lot of fun to hang out with them. On Christmas Eve we always have brunch with David's mom and brothers. We played some fun games and opened more presents! Always a good time. That night, we had dinner with my family and opened, you guessed it, MORE presents! We have such amazing families and we were spoiled yet again. A few things we got this year were; food storage, new clothes, a food scale (so my bread loaves will finally all be even!), and new toys for the kiddos.

Christmas morning was really fun. The girls were so excited to see what Santa brought for them. Alyssa got a new bike, a Barbie glamour jet, and some new clothes. Abbey also got a new bike, a Tag reading system, and new clothes. Avery got a walk and ride toy and new clothes as well. They also got some new movies and Wii games. David got Band Hero, new shoes, and new clothes, and I got new pots and pans, boots and, yep, new clothes! This year we had my parents, Grandma Maples, Hillary, and Clayton over for breakfast at our house. That afternoon we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Peterson's for the traditional soup and rolls. That is one of my favorite things about Christmas. We came home and just relaxed the rest of the day. It was really nice!

What's in a name??

I am just going to vent for a minute so bear with me! I feel like there is so much pressure to come up with a name for our new little baby girl. Obviously we will stick with the "A" tradition. I have come up with a couple name that I like, but when I tell people the names, sometimes I get comments about the names. If I suggest something to David sometimes he will say a word that sounds like that name and ruin it for me! I am getting so tired of trying to come up with a name. So I have made up my mind and I am not going to decide on a name for her until she is born. That way no one can tell me they don't like the name or try to change my mind because it will be too late. So don't get upset with me if I say that I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to offend anyone, but I am just getting frustrated. I really don't like to be negative about things, but this one subject is getting to me!

The results are in....

Yesterday was our big day! Most likely our final ultrasound. As many of you know I am prego with baby number four. I wanted my last two close together, mostly because I don't like being pregnant and I really want to get it over with and really be able to enjoy my kids. We were really hoping for a boy this time, we love our girls, but we thought it would be fun to get something different. Well, too bad, because it is another GIRL!!!! I was totally shocked! I just could not believe it! I really thought the odds were in our favor. David was pretty bummed at first, but last night he told me that he was really excited to see our new little girl's face. He really is so good with girls so I can see why Heavenly Father would trust us with such sweet girls. We have no idea on any names, we feel like we need to use another "A" name, but middle names have us stumped. I refuse to use the name Charity as a middle name, so maybe something like "Joy" or "Love". Any suggestions would be appreciated! Someday when we have a bigger house I think we will have to build David a "man-cave" so he can have some time away from princesses, dress-ups, Barbies, and all the other girly things that invade our home.