May Recap

I made a cheesecake and  fruit plate for the YM/YW fundraiser:

   

 

Abby turned 3!

 

We got a fish tank:

 

The girls have been begging for a pet. I finally agreed we could go get a container and they could keep a snail:

 

I had something like this in mind, but I made the mistake of bringing Bill with us and we came home with a fish tank – complete with heater, bubbler, and castle:

 

The girls had a lemonade stand:

 

And now I understand why my mom always said no when we asked to sell lemonade. (you can see our new van behind them)

 

Found out we are having a baby boy!!

 

Abby wrapped herself in saran wrap. (I was making 3 dozen candy leis for Sandy’s preschool graduation).

 

 

Sandy graduated from preschool:

 

And a random picture of Abby with her favorite pink, sparkly shoes:

Sandy’s Preschool Graduation

 

 

The kids did a little program to show us things they’ve learned this year. This was their song about firemen:

 

 

They came up one at a time to get their diplomas:

 

As each kid walked up to get their diploma, they introduced them and shared some things about them. This was what they said about Sandy:

 

“Next we will meet Sandra Buhler. Sandy likes to plant flowers at home. She says her favorite activity at preschool is coloring pictures of trees. Sandra is hoping to be a cowgirl when she grows up. She likes to come to preschool with her shoes on the wrong feet. Sandy loves to surprise Miss Celeste with beautiful homemade gifts that she and her mother make.”

 

Here’s a picture of Sandy with her teacher, Miss Celeste.

 

Sandy’s holding the photo album her teacher made. She made one for each of the kids with pictures from the school year:

Happy Birthday, Abby!

We started out the morning with our traditional birthday pancakes:

 

 

  

 

Then we had a small party, complete with a Dora pinata:

 

Grandma and Grandpa came for cupcakes and ice cream:

 

 

Happy Birthday, Abby!

 

A few things about Abby at this age:

 

1.” That makes me so happy!”

Abby says this several times a day. Because her sister shared with her, because she got the pink plate for lunch, because she is wearing two pairs of panties (at least that was her response the other day when I asked her why she was wearing two pairs of panties). It doesn’t take much to make this little girl very happy.

 

2. “That is not acceptable.”

This is another thing she says a lot , I couldn’t figure out where she was getting it from until I heard myself say it. Check out past blog posts for some of her spectacular messes and you might understand why. The other night she came out of her bedroom and said, “There is a fly in my room. That is not acceptable. Daddy, can you get your gun and shoot it"?”

 

3. She loves to be a kitty.

Abby’s favorite game is playing kitties. I frequently have a little girl climbing under tables, pawing at my leg, and meowing. Ironically, she is allergic to cats (as am I) and she knows it. We saw a black cat the other day while on a walk and Abby said, “That cat is allergic to me!” and refused to pet it.

 

4. “You are the bestest (insert sister, mom, dad, friend) ever!”

Another thing we hear a lot at our house. Anytime someone does something nice for Abby, this is her typical reply.

 

5. She’s learned her letters/counting/etc. along with Sandy and she’s quite good.

It does lead to some interesting response sometimes. Although she does know how to spell Abby, her most likely response to being asked how to spell her name is S-A-N-D-Y.

 

6. A few of her favorites:

Her favorite color is pink, her favorite TV shows are Dora and Phineas and Ferb. She loves to play princesses and dress up but she also loves trucks and cars and balls. She loves to eat yogurt, cheese, and apples.

 

7. She has very sensitive ears.

For such a loud child (and believe me, this child does not stop making noise ever), she has very sensitive ears. She plugs her ears for loud noises – like the vacuum or the toilet flushing. She can’t stand other people making loud noises. She even complains when people are laughing that it hurts her ears.

 

8. She loves her blankets and stuffed animals.

Before she can go to sleep, she has to have her special blanket and several of her favorite stuffed animals lined up next to her. She also needs a special water cup. And if she gets up in the middle of the night, she needs to bring all of it with her. She will occasionally try to crawl into my bed in the middle of the night and bring multiple loads of stuff with her.

 

9. She loves babies and is very excited to be a big sister.

Her prayers these day, go something like this: “Thank you for my mom. Thank you for my dad. Thank you for me sister. Thank you for me! Thank you for my baby brother. Thank you for the doctors that will help him come out of mommy’s tummy. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.”

 

10. Feisty is the main adjective people use to describe her after subbing in nursery.

Our nursery has been pretty inconsistent with leaders and there are frequently substitutes. Abby likes to follow a schedule and is quick to correct them if they aren’t doing the “right” things in the “right” order. She’s also quick to assert herself if she feels like another kid is taking her stuff or pushing her around. We’re working on that, and as she’s getting older and learning to use her words more than pushing or hitting, it’s getting better. I hope she never stops being feisty, though, because it is such a big part of her personality!

April Recap

We went to Bill’s mission reunion:

 

Bill & I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary.

 

We went out to breakfast at Penny Ann’s Cafe. Check out the hot chocolate they brought me:

 

 

We played with lots of play dough. Kind of random, but as I dug through the pictures on my phone from April almost half of them were of different play dough creations.

Abby made some spectacular messes. A last ditch effort to ensure the terrible twos are memorable?

 

Liquid eye shadow makes great war paint, don’t you think?

Bill normally makes the girls breakfast on Saturday mornings. This particular Saturday morning Abby woke us up at 6 by jumping on our bed and saying, “The sun is up! The sun is up! I want scrambled eggs for breakfast.” We both rolled over, waiting to see who would cave first and get up with her. After a few minutes, I got up and went into the kitchen to find this:

She had very carefully cracked eggs for her scrambled eggs. She just forgot a bowl.

 

And there was the day I came into the bathroom to find this:

She cut her bangs completely off:

Good things she’s so adorable when she’s sleeping:

Announcement

We are expecting a baby on or around November 5 (which makes me 12 weeks pregnant).

This has been an emotional roller coaster of a pregnancy and there have been four times that I was sure it was over, yet every time the ultrasound has shown the baby is still doing well. I’ve had pretty good reasons for being concerned, like the subchorionic hemorrhage I had last Thursday night (just hours after the ultrasound picture above).

Here is the ultrasound from last Friday showing the subchorionic hemorrhage, and the baby still doing well:

 

I had one when I was pregnant with Abby – and although it was very scary, it turned out okay. There was a lot more bleeding with this one. Also a lot of cramping, which I don’t remember with Abby. The bleeding is under control, the cramping has gotten much better, but still comes back if I do anything strenuous.

At this point, I’ve decided this is a miracle baby – there have been plenty of chances for this pregnancy to end, plenty of times I thought it had, so I hope that means the miracles will continue. Well, it is in God’s hands. 

The girls are incredibly excited about the baby! They wanted to carry around the ultrasound pictures, so Bill made them their own copies. Sandy colored hers in, both girls have them taped above their beds. Several times a day, one or both of them will come and put their head to my stomach to check on the baby. Usually they tell me the baby is laughing, although occasionally crying or screaming. 

Abby is convinced the baby is a girl. She came with me to an earlier ultrasound than either of the two pictured above and insisted the baby looked like a girl.

Happy Easter!

Sandy’s wearing clip-on earrings. She has been begging for some for a long time. Her Easter basket was actually a locking box that she could keep little treasures, like her earrings, safe from her little sister:

    

The girls got their Easter baskets Saturday morning. Here is Abby, holding a chocolate egg and, apparently, missing her pajamas.

Happy Easter!

Phone Pictures

I was cleaning picture off my cell phone and found some to share.

 

 

The girls playing on the W (for West High) at Sandy’s preschool.

 

 

Speaking of preschool, I have to admit that the stack of art projects Sandy comes up with usually ends up tossed in the trash. If she doesn’t see me do it, she doesn’t ever ask where they went. I do feel bad about sometimes. I hung this fish picture – painted with colored corn syrup -- on the fridge. The corn syrup stuff ran all the way down, what a sticky mess! I guess we’re back to throwing them in the garbage as soon as we get home.

 

Sandy’s “Princess Leia” hairstyle.

         

 

Here are the Easter baskets we grew grass in. I really liked how they turned out.