Californian Adventures!!

It has been awhile since I have posted anything new...so i am going to attempt to catch up on all of our california fun...hang on...First off. I love california...or atleast the 80 degree weather. It was so nice to see green and flowers growing. As it is STILL cold and snowny in michigan! We Have spent a day at the beach...which the girls loved. Alysse was covered in sand!

We went to disneyland for a day...but after reading erica's post it looks like we picked the WRONG day to go. The park was filled to compassity that day...and we waited over an hour for every ride. But once again the weather was beautiful and the girls had so much fun. Finding Nemo was the fAVorite ride of the day.

We had a massive easter celebration with lots of family...and hunted eggs. It was so nice to just let my girls wear their dresses and not have tights and sweaters and jackets and gloves and..ok you get the point. just dresses and sandals!

We have eaten lots of yummy mexican food. which is seriously lacking in the mid-west...and my sister and I ate an entire strawberry pie in ten minutes! So needless to say I have put on some weight atleat I can blame it on being pregnant! hehe. We only have a couple days left and I am sooo sad to have to go back to the cold and snow! So between now and then we are just going to enjoy the sun! It has been so nice to let my kids play outside and have picnic's.

baby #3 will be!!

Sooooo I went to the doctor yesterday and had my sonagram....and it looks like we will be having another girl. It is slightly ironic since aaron's brother has four boys!!! Apparently he got all the Y's and we got ALL the X's!!! Thank you to those of you how cried me through it yesterday pointing out the positives to having a litter of one sex! I greatly appreicate it!And I am feeling alot better today...and we feel extremely blessed that everything looks good and our new baby is healthy! Also as of right now it looks like the baby's feet look good...so no club feet as of right now. We are now searching for a name because I had truly convinced myself that we were having a boy this time...i had tons of boy names picked out but I have no clue about anymore girl names...so i am more than open for suggestions!!!! I hope everyone has a great day!!!

mommy gets a time out!!!

I had an amazing weekend!!! A couple of weeks ago stacy called me and asked if i wanted to go to chicago with her and go to the time out for women...I was soooo excited to get away from the kids and with baby number 3 due in August this was going to be one of my last oppotunities for awhile...so Friday morning amid a blizzard i packed up and met stac in toledo. We spent the next four/ five hours talking, laughing, and making fun of aaron's anicent GPS that kept scaring stacy and was a source of laughter for the whole weekend. We had so much fun...for anyone who has not gone... the women's time out was AMAZING!!!! Neither one of had ever gone before and i would recommend it to everyone. It was exactly what i needed before this baby is born.

We stayed at the Embassy suites and stac scored us a sweet room with all kinds of goodies. We got a free movie each night. So we watched Juno (which I was dying to see after seeing Ellen Page on Oprah) and 27 dresses. We absolutely gorged ourselves on the amazing breakfast every morning...and we decided that we want to live at an embassy suites...have someone come make our beds, and clean our bathroom every day and a great breakfast waiting every morning!!!!

driving into chicago I was the bad verison of a tourist, and had to get a picture of the city. And yes...all of you that live in the mid-west that is blue sky and SUN!!! The weather was great...which also added to our weekend

It was really exciting to actually see and meet some of our "mormon" super stars! I love hiliary weeks and it was so much fun getting a chance to meet her. She was so funny and witty. We also met Merrlee Boyack ( i couldnt say her name all weekend) BUT SHE gave the most amazing talk and once again it was cool to meet these people...after reading their books and listening to there cds. It was awesome to hear their stories and get to see their different personalities. We were also able to met Chieko Okazaki from the general relief socitey pres., dean hughes, and jane clayson the cbs morning achor that wrote the book "I am a mother" ....i was i slight ahhh i think this is what heaven in be like.

After the confernce was over we hopped on the L-train.... small side note..... stacy was amazing and knew everything...where we were going, how to get there, where to eat...she was the perfect tour guide...the next picture would be much better burned and way less embrassing but anyone who knows me knows very well that I am a major barf-er...and being prego doesnt help the situation any!!! And we had to hop off the train so i could barf!!! Stac had to take a picture of me next to my special trash can! And i am actually very thankful for that trash can!!!

After my eposide we finally made our way down to michigan avenue and got something to eat. We ate at ed...something...but everyone ( all the waiters and hostes) are really loud and rude. I was not feeling very good so i couldnt get into as much as I wanted to but stacy made the most of the situation and got ice thrown at her and kissed...yup stacy got some action from our waiter "the swan"and of course i got a picture...we then hit michigan ave...for some great shopping...we went to Garett's and got some awesome carmel corn...once again an Oprah orginal!!!

It was the perfect weekend. And we both were very proud of our husbands as they juggled many obstacles with great success! However they were very happy to see that we had not run away for good. We had so much fun it was kinda hard to come home....everyone mom needs a time out evey once in a while!

a lil sisterly love! and alot less tv!

Aaron and i decided that our kids had over-all being watching way too much tv. so for a week we decided that the tv would break. I thought ashlyn would throw a fit...at times during the week i wanted to throw a fit but the results were amazing. My kids were sooooo much nicer to each other and found ways to play together...instead of just sitting there fighting over the prime couch spot to watch tv. And Aaron and I found we had so much more time to do the things that were truely important.Like spending time talking...working out together(kind of) and wrestling with the kids. Instead of us all just planting it on the couch. So needless to say we are seriously limiting the amount the tv around the bean household.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's day was a crazy one this year...filled with morning treats, school parties, and a doctor's appt.! Every year when the girls wake up i have a little treat for them, because they are my lil valentines! I was a little worried because ashlyn started making a list like it was christmas all over again. So i was a little afraid that she would be disappointed...but she loved what she got. Then it was off to the school party. Which would have been great minus alysse. who was into EVERYTHING!!! She had her fingers in the frosting at the cookie decorating table, she was eating the hersey's kisses for the bingo game....she thought she was part of the class during story time. And was spotted several times picking the foam hearts off the kids valentine's boxes. Needless to say she had a great time! I was exhausted. I must add... it was soooo cute! there is a boy in ashlyn's class that likes her and he saved up his own money and bought her a special valentine...and at the end of class gave it to her and asked if she would be his valentine. i thought it was soooo cute. She was so embarrassed!!! she wouldnt let me take a picture unil we got home! Then after 4 hours of partying with kindergarteners it was off to the doctor's office. which i thought was going to take about 15 minutes...but turned into an hour and a half long ordeal kids included. As we were waiting i was reminded of all the goodies that are located in an OB's office. So i had to keep alysse up on the examing table...which she loved because the paper made so much noise. She then proceeded to ripe the paper into tiny pieces and launch it off the table. In walks the doctor which scared her and she would not leave my lap so the doctor had to measure me and listen for the heart beat with alysse drapped across me. One good thing that did come out of the experience is i get my ultrasound in TWO WEEKS!!! So march 6th I will know what i am having. YEAH!!!! When then came home to heart shaped pancakes, eggs, and hased browns for dinner. It was a very busy day but all in all it was worth it....i think.

tents and tunnels...thanks to erica.

So with it being so incredibly blasted cold here my kids have about had it being indoors. And believe me so have i!!! So the other day erica (grover) anyone who blogs knows who she is...posted about her girls loving to play in their play tents and the tunnels. I thought what a great idea. My kids are constantly trying to build forts....but the senario usually plays out like so....ashlyn takes an hour or so ever so carefully building the perfect fort with blankets and pillows and couch cushions, and chairs, etc....and about one minute after she enters her masterpiece fort.... in comes alysse... who then in about thirty seconds trashs the whole thing...massive crying insues from both parties ashlyn because" she worked soooooo hard and dumb alysse broke it" and alysse due to bodily harm. SOOOOO i decided to get some tunnels and a few tents and see how it went. When the box arrived they could not wait to rip into the bad boy and played for hours. I took a couple of pictures before my camera died to document one of the single times my children played civily together!!! So thank you erica for the great idea.

it is never good when they are quite!!

Small explanation...we were watching t.v. as a family last night and aaron and I looked at each other and went "ummmm " where is alysse?" "she is being way to quite" And this is what we found. I guess she wanted a snack. My child has a fascination with bread she is always getting into it. she use to sit on the whole loaf so we moved it but apparently it didnt stop her for long.

some pictures of what keeps me going!

i have been really bad with posting lately mostly because we have not been doing a ton lately, due to me feeling horrible! But i am starting to feel better. YEAH!!! and so this last week i took some pictures of the girls that made me laugh. They really help keep me in good spirits as i am feeling so gross. So i hope you get a laugh out of them too! Small explanation...alysse has awesome bed head and the other morning it was exceptionally beautiful. and so was her mood. Oh ...and the weird face she is making in all the pictures...is her saying "chheeeessse" the only way she will let me take her pictures is by saying "say cheese" and she does. So i know it looks like she has to go potty but she is really being happy! Enjoy!