Cortney's Crew

Saturday was Alexandra's birthday party. For her party she wanted to "catch bugs". For some reason she is fascinated with bugs and catching them (and not letting them out, but not understanding why they die). So we went with a whole bug theme and she loved it!! Here is her cake that she got to decorate with gummy tarantulas and worms. One of the activities I decided to do was a scavenger hunt for plastic bugs. I got all the kids little bug catcher boxes (for the "goody bags") so they could take them home with them. Here are pictures of the bugs hiding before the party started. Grasshoppers Glow-in-the-dark caterpillars Flys Centipedes Ants (in a picnic basket - I'm so stinking creative!) Butterflies Bees Red and Yellow ladybugs When they kids first got there I had them sit and make door hangers and pictures with foam bug stickers. Then they went on the scavenger hunt. I must say its a good thing I didn't really hide them that hard becau...

Yesterday was our 9 th Wedding Anniversary. And although Dean had a cold we had a great evening. Mom took the girls and we went and had dinner at Outback. Although trying to decide between Olive Garden and Outback for this pregnant lady was a hard decision. I told Dean earlier when he was complaining about his cold that he could stay home and then I could eat at both places by myself! Then we went and saw Underworld: Rise of the Lycans . I know extremely romantic! But Dean loves the whole Underworld series, so I let him pick. Plus there really wasn't any other movie I felt like seeing. (And just to add a rant - these two ladies came in with LITTLE kids to watch this movie!!!!! The littlest was like 5. I couldn't believe someone would bring kids that little to a movie like that!!) I can't believe that it's really been 9 years though. Although when I realize that Riley is 8...still hard to believe that time has passed this quickly. Dean asked me last night h...

This is for all of Alexandra's Primary teachers. (Mostly the choristers) As we were leaving to pick Riley up from school yesterday, Alexandra asks me "What rock is our house built on?" Now it took me a little bit to figure out what she was asking me, but then I thought of the song Wise Man, Foolish Man, so I asked her if that was what she was asking. She told me "No! Like 'How Firm a Foundation' ". (Which they are learning this year) I'm sure they had a discussion about what a "Foundation" is during music time. But it just cracked me up! So even if you think she's not paying attention, she really is!! Here are links to the songs if you want to listen! http://broadcast.lds.org/churchmusic/MP3/eng/CSB_Words/CSW___250_Pg281_TheWiseManAndTheFoolishMan_35395_eng_255.mp3 http://broadcast.lds.org/churchmusic/MP3/eng/Hymns_Words/HW___085__HowFirmAFoundation_31243_eng_089.mp3

So my appointment yesterday went well. I could only get an afternoon appointment so the girls got to go with, which wasn't a big deal considering all they do is measure and listen to the heart rate. So they weigh me (and no I'm not posting the weight, but I'm up 16 lbs which is more than I've ever been up at this point...not sure why, but I think I'm gonna blame the girl scout cookies - although the good news is I'm actually up to where I was when I started exercising last year so hopefully it'll come off easy again) and Riley says "WOW! That's a lot!!" The nurse tells Riley "I don't think you're gonna get to come next time..." When the doctor comes in (still seeing the doctor I like!) we talk about my bleeding (or lack of it!!) and she decides that we'll wait on the steroids since my bleeding has stopped. She said if it starts up again at all we'll do them then. Then she sets up the chair next to the bed so the girls ...

I have always had a fascination with all things Irish. Maybe deep down inside I really am Irish. (Hey it could be possible, I have no idea of my ancestry on my biological fathers side) So I thought I would post a list of why I should be Irish! I love St. Patrick's Day! I always have! Every time I go to the store and see all the shamrock decorations it just makes me happy deep down inside. My favorite color is GREEN . I have always wanted to have red hair. (And have dyed it that color many times) I love shamrocks. I remember being little and being at Nan's house and spending hours in the backyard looking for a 4-leaf clover. I love Colin Farrell. (he's just hot, and well his accent....) There are many more Irish actors I could name, but he's the #1 for me! I love Irish accents! (I told Dean if he'd learn to talk with an Irish accent....yeah those of you who like accents know where that conversation went!) I loved Riverdance. (And I must admit, I would even try to do ...

So WHEN (I'm being optimistic and positive) I make it through this week, I will have beaten my record. 23 weeks was when I had the abruption with Riley. I've already beaten Alexandra's week. I'm so happy to have made it this far. This week has been my goal week from the beginning. Partly because I know that now is when they start considering the baby to be viable. Now if anything happens, they will do everything they can to either stop contractions or help the baby. Now every week beyond that I'm not on bed rest is awesome!! I think at my appointment next week they will probably give me the steroid shots for the baby's lungs. We talked about that early in the pregnancy and my doctor said she wanted to give it to me once we could, that way it will have time to work just in case the worst happens. I'm still feeling good, just tired it seems all the time. The baby is moving tons!! Dean and Alexandra got to feel her kick for the first time Sunday at...

I've been waiting to post this till I took a picture of the cast (yes they gave Alexandra the choice of keeping it, and of course she said yes). But it keeps being left in the car...so maybe eventually when it makes its way inside I'll post a picture of it. A very happy Alexandra with no cast! Although she did tell me that her arm felt "weirder then the other one". And even though I was afraid of what the arm would look like after 3 weeks of no washing and who knows what falling down in the cast (crumbs, sand from the playground), I was quite surprised that it wasn't absolutely disgusting. In fact the worst part of it was just the dry flaky skin. It was very nice to give the girls a bath that night and not to have to keep yelling "Keep it out of the water!!!"

Saturday was Riley's baptism. It was a great day and very spiritual. Nan and Pop gave talks on baptism and the Holy Ghost and they did a great job. We had tons of family and friends come and join us and it was great to see everyone there to support Riley. She was very nervous at first, but everything went great. It was so awesome to see her and Dean together in the font. To be able to watch my husband baptize my daughter was incredible. It's just one of those "I'm so grateful for having the priesthood in my home" moments. For her baptism we got her a set of scriptures engraved with her name, a scripture tote, and a journal. We also added some colored pencils and pads of paper to her tote. I told her once she was baptized she had to sit and pay attention during sacrament, that she couldn't play with her sister anymore, but our compromise was that she could still draw (our little artist, she can't stand to just sit and not be doing something, especially d...

So Sunday after it took us 30 mins to brush her hair, Riley finally decided that we could cut it. I must admit I have been wanting to cut it short for quite a while now. It's just so hard for an 8 year old to take care of when it's that long, which means it's always mom taking care of it. Once she gave us permission (I've always let her do what she wants with her hair - at least since she's been big enough to decide) I wasn't gonna let her back out!! So we went after school on Monday to get it cut. Pictures Monday morning - And here's the after pictures!! We were able to donate her hair to Locks of Love, which also made her haircut free!! With it all one length you're really able to see just how thick her hair is. I love it and think it looks so cute on her. She really likes it too, especially when we brushed it yesterday morning. It took maybe 90 seconds to brush. She turned to me and said "I love short hair. I never want it to be long e...

On Saturday I had the opportunity to go to our Stake Women's Conference. Unfortunately I could only stay for half of the day because Dean had to go to work, but the half I got to go to was great! The day started out with a speaker. His name was Jim Jacobs, I believe he's the director of LDS social services here, not positive on his being the director, but I know that he's with social services (I have to admit I wasn't paying the best attention at that point). He talked about self-worth and self esteem. It was an awesome talk. I wish I would have had pen and paper to take notes so I could share some of it with you, but unfortunately my huge purse had no paper or pens to spare. But the part I remember the best he talked about patriarchal blessings. He talked about how sometimes there are parts in our blessings that haven't happened or we just don't see happening in our lives and we get caught up thinking about those when we read them. So he told us to go ...