Old Gems...

Since we are getting ready to start finishing our basement soon, I figured it would be good to start going through all of our "boxes of stuff" to see what was worth keeping.

I've been able to throw away quite a lot of junk, and DI the things that are still good, just not for us. 

I've even gone through all of our boxes of baby clothing and been able to get rid of a bunch of clothes that were either so worn they would never be used again or things that we've had but never used. I only allowed myself to keep 1 tub of each size of clothing. There is still a TON of clothing we are keeping, but less than we had before.

 But I feel like we've been quite productive.

And I found this box...

It is a box full of "little gems" from my childhood.

Although, most of the stuff in this box is very random, and quite useless... I have to admit, I didn't throw away a single thing.

The girls loved helping me go through this box.

And they got a little glimpse into who I was when I was their age.

It was quite fun actually.

They discovered that they enjoy collecting rocks just about as much as I did...

And they learned that I was quite the artist...

I especially like the picture of my dad on the green paper where he is wearing a dress. :)

They also thought it was cool to see the cities my brother Andrew and I used to make out in the garden for our match box cars...

I have to admit, we were pretty creative! 

It's no surprise that Andrew became an engineer when he grew up...

Did you notice the swimming pool and our pine tree branches we planted?

They loved the masks and hats they found inside the box as well.

The purple and blue mask was an actual mask of my face that we made in 6th grade and I think the blue mask was from 7th grade.

These hats were both from my first two years of girls camp.

We had such fun leaders. :)

 This hat was from the year our theme was Noah's Ark- we were the bears. We earned a new pin for our hat every time we passed off one of our certifications.

 This year our theme was something to do with lighthouses (Sorry mom I can't remember the exact theme- I just remember the big light house you had dad build for us.) 

We were the Beluga Whales.

One thing the girls wouldn't appreciate yet, but I'm sure they will get a good laugh from someday, are my childhood journals.

That top journal was written by me with a little extra help from my cousin Joanna while we spent the week with our Great Aunt Mardene one summer, as we always used to do. Oh the secrets that can be discovered here!

A few family gems were discovered as well.

This was my Mom and Dad's wedding invitation.

Don't they look great?

And this old check and cow magnet (don't ask what those magnets were used for... you're probably better off not knowing) were discovered out in my Grandpa's old milking barn. My Grandparents died right around the time I turned one, so anything we could find that reminded us of our Grandparents were treasures indeed.

My Mom didn't even know these checks still existed until I opened this box.

And this one has to be one of my favorites...

(my mom just might disown me for posting this. :)

It was a letter written to my Mom, shortly after she and my Dad had gotten married. I think my cousin and I discovered this one years ago at her house, of all places. Maybe my Mom was trying to hide it from my Dad? haha. Just kidding.

Anyway, it was a letter written to my Mom by a missionary friend of hers who was a part of her Study Abroad program in Europe.

To summarize my favorite part of the letter...

"Dear JoAnn, the former Miss Hall,

I just got the news today...I hope it is proper protocol for a young missionary to congratulate a young lady on her recent marriage. That's great news and I'm happy for you... I am curious about one thing, though, and I hope you don't consider the question too personal: Is your husband one of those guys you used to talk about in your sleep?"

Now you have to know my Mom to know just how funny this letter was to find. She is the most modest, keep personal matters to herself kind of person which this letter may lead you to believe otherwise. I have to admit I did have to go straight to the source when I found this letter to get answers for myself though. So here's the explanation I received. Since my Mom and this young man (as well as the rest of those college age students that were studying abroad) spent 2 months together, travelling around Europe, there were many times they slept on trains while traveling. So although, I don't know if my Mom actually "talked about boys" in her sleep or not... the situation wasn't as sketchy as it seemed. :) Though mortifying to her, this letter was one of my favorite discoveries of all time. 

Since Karl and I have moved so many times over the course of the last 6-1/2 years, (I think to date we have moved 7 different times) I have become a very good de-junker. But as I look back through this box, I realize, I want my children to have some of these silly memories of me when they are older. So although, most of the stuff in this box could be considered junk or even embarrassing, I am keeping them for my children. 

Hopefully they'll thank me one day...

And hopefully my mom will forgive me for posting this one day too.

I love you!

Treehouse Museum...

A couple of weeks ago, the girls and I met up with our cousin's, Aunt and Nana for a fun day at the children's museum in Ogden.

I'm only a little behind in posting these pictures...

Puppet shows...

 Donkey rides...

 Some liked it more than others...

 This was one of the only smiles I caught of Aubrey this day...

She was tired and overwhelmed by everything that was around her.

 Soaking it all up...

 Wild horses...

 Firefighting...

 I barely caught her...

 The xylophone was quite loud...

 Second smile of the day...

 I love that sweet smile!

 ...not so sure how these instruments work...

 Working in the nursery...

 Pulling the sword from the stone...

 She finally crashed in the Queen's arms...

 Princess Maddie...

 The curious court Jester..

 This girl loves her markers...

 Hiding so we didn't have to leave...

There were so many fun things to do at this museum. And the girls LOVED getting to play with Ivy and Violet! Next time we might have to rethink our plan of 2 pregnant mommies and one Nana taking 5 active children to such a big museum all by ourselves though... we were all exhausted by the end!  But we all needed the outing... I guess a little exhaustion is worth it every once in a while in order to maintain all of our sanity right? 

Thanks Lacey for the fun idea and Nana for coming along with us!

Let's do it again sometime.

When our husbands are around. :)

The cats out of the bag...

I guess it's time we let the cat out of the bag...

For those of you who see me on a regular basis, you have probably  already figured it out but for those of you who don't know...

We're having another baby!

But the biggest surprise of all came to us this 

morning, when we found out

that we are having...

.

.

.

.

.

.

A BOY!!!

A couple weeks ago we found out that our family practice doctor- the doctor who has worked with our family, most specifically with Aubrey, since Aubrey was born- also delivers babies!

I was ecstatic when I discovered this, quite by a matter of chance, because I have not been enjoying the OB we had chosen. I didn't mind the doctor, there just wasn't that connection with him. I was also pretty frustrated because at 16 weeks they still hadn't scheduled our 20 week ultrasound. When they did have me call, the hospital was already scheduled out 8 weeks! Obviously I wasn't very happy about that. We did end up scheduling an appointment at a different hospital for next week but I was going to have to drive a lot farther.

Then a couple weeks ago while at the doctors with Madison, our doctor ended up having to leave to deliver a baby. "WHAAAAT??? You deliver babies???" was my first thought. His response, "I didn't know you were pregnant!" If only I had told him sooner...

It's not like we are in his office at least once a week or anything... 

So I had my records transferred back to our beloved doctor and had my first appointment this week. While we were at the appointment he asked about the ultrasound and told us he would cancel our appointment at the hospital (that's 30 minutes away) and schedule us an appointment at their clinic for the next day.

Seriously, who would complain about getting to find out the gender of (potentially) our last baby? (I say potentially because if it's up to us, this is our last :) 

And honestly,

The odds were not in favor of us having a boy.

But there were a few people (like Karl) that were hoping this was going to be our boy.

Our Reaction:

I was- and still am- in COMPLETE shock.

I seriously never thought we would have a boy.

I will admit I cried. And I don't know if it was because my gut feeling was actually confirmed or if it was the fact that having a boy scares me to death! I don't do the boy thing!

All I know are dolls and princesses.

Karl wasn't shocked at all.

Madison was super excited!

Brooklyn on the other hand...

...Wasn't very happy.

She really wanted another sister. She even had her name picked out. She's been talking about baby Ayla for weeks now...

And little Aubrey, just plain and simply, enjoyed her cupcake. :)

I'm sure she'll love having a little brother when he gets here though.

 Oh and I guess the next question everyone is going to have is when is this little guy going to be joining the family?

The estimated arrival time is sometime before or close to July 12!

A trip to the hair salon...

Have you ever tried taking 3 kids to a 2 hour haircut appointment?

I must say, this is something I never thought I would even attempt. Especially on a day I was getting my hair colored as well...

But I didn't have a babysitter.

And I needed to get my hair done.

So, we packed up a bag full of Fruit roll ups, marshmallows, juice boxes and gold fish and I prayed my hardest that they would all behave!

I have to admit, I was very nervous.

Surprisingly though, the girls did amazingly well!

They actually were really excited that they got to go.

Aubrey sat in the stroller the whole time eating snacks and being her usual sweet self.

Brooklyn talked everyone's ears off. Seriously. Anyone who would listen was delighted with all sorts of wonderful stories. 

But I don't think anyone minded.

Especially when she started singing "Popular" from the Wicked soundtrack.

It was also probably a good thing that there was only one other employee working and that she didn't have a client for most of the time we were there though.

And Madison had reasons of her own to be good.

She too was getting a "real" haircut.

She was so excited.

Especially for the part where she got to have her hair washed in the sink. I mean who doesn't love a good head massage?

 Meet Emily.

She has done my hair since I was at least a sophomore in high school. She is seriously the best. When I moved away for college, I had another girl I would go to and although I liked her, she was no Emily. Nobody else dares to thin my hair the way she does. Although we don't usually take much off the length, I always shed a few pounds from all the hair she hacks off. All of my sisters (even Heidi when she comes to town) and my mom all go to her. Her salon isn't actually that close to our house either, but driving the 30 minutes to have her do my hair is so worth it. And besides, how many people would be patient enough to have their clients lug 3 children, 5 and under, along for a haircut? 

Thanks again Emily, for always making me feel better about myself every time I leave your salon!