new books!

My wonderful friend and past roommate Britney sent me a Barnes and Noble giftcard for my birthday. This was an extra special treat because I almost never buy books (clearly that is what the library is for.)  I thought long and hard about what book I wanted and eventually decided on:

Janssen raved about it last year and 96% of the time I agree completely with Janssen (I can't actually think of a time when I have disliked a book she recommended, but I'll leave myself 4% just in case she goes crazy.)  I impatiently sat on the waiting list for this book at the library, and then when I finally got it I read the first couple chapters and decided it was a book I wanted to own.  So, I now have my very own copy and can finally finish Dinner: A Love Story.

While I was in a book buying mood I decided to get something for Jilly.  We struggle a lot with reverence during church.  Jillian can't sit quietly for 15 minutes let alone an hour plus of Sacrament Meeting.  When we were in Virginia my mom had a lift the flap book that Jilly loved and stayed pretty quiet with so I bought her a Lift the Flap Bible.  I'm going to try to keep it special and just for church, but I did let her read it in the car on the way home and she loves her "Jesus Book" as she calls it.
 

it's the most wonderful time of the year

The best part about putting Valentines decorations up this year (and you better believe we've had these decorations up for weeks by now) was Jilly following behind me saying, "Oh petty, I wike it Mommy."  Love that girl.

Most of my decorations are pretty similar from last year, but I did add a few.

 I made one of these little pouches for each of us, and once I finished them all I realized I'll have to make another one next year!  I'm going to print these notes for us to give each other throughout the next couple weeks.

Powder room, and as a bonus me and baby at 24.5 weeks

My sewing table- this printable is from my cousin's etsy shop and I love it a lot.  It will not be disappearing after Feb 14th.

rain gutter bookshelves

This post could also be titled "Why Bryan is the best" or "The day Jilly couldn't keep her tongue in her mouth."

One day I showed Bryan this link and said "How would you feel about putting rain gutter bookshelves in Jilly's room?"  He replied, "Great, send me the link."  The link was sent and the next day he and Jilly were off to Lowe's.  They came home with a 10 ft long piece of rain gutter.  I was very glad I hadn't gone with them because they had to drive with the windows open for it to fit-brr!  

A couple days later Bryan cut the rain gutter in half, drilled the brackets into the wall, hung the gutters, and put the endcaps on (our shelves are right against the wall so we only did endcaps on the left side but other than that we followed the instructions on the initial link.)  The whole process took about 30 minutes and was a smashing success.  We are in love with our new shelves.

Next up: a pouf to go in that corner and finally painting the walls!

While I was in Jilly's room taking pictures I had to snap one of her tent.  We moved the changing table out of her room a few days ago and when she saw the changing pad she said, "Oh! A bed!"  She quickly snagged it and relocated it to her tent.  She loves to sit in there and read books. It looks so cozy, it may be hard to ever get it back from her!

five

1. This week Jillian has been sicker and grouchier than ever before.  For most of the week she could not sleep at all unless I was holding her.  Needless to say, I've watched a lot of Disney movies and not gotten a whole lot done (including sleep.)

2. Since we got married I've been making a "yearbook" to document each year.  I actually made a scrapbook our first year, but since then have used shutterfly (which is delightfully easy and mess-free.)  We got our 2012 book in the mail this week and Jilly and I love looking through it. (So does Bryan, he just hasn't spent as much time with it as we have.)

3. On Sunday I substituted in primary and talked to a lady I don't know very well.  She asked who my husband was and after I described Bryan she said, "Oh, I know exactly who you mean.  He is very good-looking!"  I had to agree.

4.  Our ultrasound appointment actually was not nearly as pleasant as we would have hoped.  Because of Jilly's sickness we didn't take her to a friend's house like we had planned.  She freaked out that I couldn't hold her and cried almost the whole time so she and Bryan waited outside.  Also, baby girl was a stubborn little stinker and would not change her position so it took forever to get all the images they needed.  We were relieved to finally be leaving the office at the end!

5.  Jilly has been practicing peek-a-boo for her little sister.  Freddy loves being the beneficiary of all this practice.

It's a...

baby sister!!

As one who knows the joy of sisters, I'm so excited for Jilly and this little girl.  We are thrilled to add some more pink to our family!

two

A few weeks ago we were talking about our upcoming addition and Bryan said, "I wish the baby would just come out as a two year old like Jilly."  I disagreed for the obvious reason that I am the one carrying and giving birth to the child but also because I think a squishy sweet newborn baby is the absolute best thing to be found on this earth.

But, he does have a point.  We are loving this stage with Jilly.  Yes, there are tantrums, lots of whining, struggles to understand, hitting and kicking, timeout, and general messiness, but she is so much fun.  Here are some of our favorite things Jilly does lately:

- We are way way way into the princess phase.  Jilly loves to put on a "sparkey" (sparkly) dress and twirl around the room.

- She also loves to sing.  Her favorite song is "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star/The Alphabet Song."  She'll frequently switch between the two songs "A, B, C, D, E, F, G, like a diamond in the sky" or sometimes replace all usual lyrics with "Mommy mommy mommy mommy" (great for my ego.)

- When she's in the mood Jilly gives the best bear hugs.  When she's not in the mood you're lucky to get a light pat on the shoulder.

- Jilly adds new words and phrases to her repertoire every day which is so exciting.  However, she still can't say the "k" sound.  Some of our favorite phrases are: "I'm tumming!" (I'm coming), "oh, toot" (cute) "titty" (kitty), and "tiwi" (kiwi, which is what she calls a Clementine oddly enough)

- She loves to wear dresses.  I literally have to hide some dresses because she asks to wear them every.single.day.

- Jilly loves to play with baby dolls.  She sings to them, puts them to sleep with a blankie, and loves to teach them new skills (like kick a ball or push a button.)  She'll be such a good big sister.

yucky

The other day I was playing around with my new camera, so I wasn't really paying attention to what Jilly was doing as I snapped these pictures.

Guess she learned the hard way that lotion doesn't taste so good.  And p.s. how darling are those slippers from her Auntie Katie?