March (the month at large) 2012

March was the month of crafting.  RSV and all that sickness was behind us now, and we wanted to do some spring projects.  Tillie, a lover of all things creative, was especially enthusiastic about our plans to craft.

Here she is painting a paper plate (great plan, b/c it keeps all the paint on the surface and doesn't drip off the corners).  Thanks, Pinterest.

::: My mom and dad sent this little cell phone holder/wallet doo-hickey to me for Valentine's day.  Such a fun little gift and perfect when I go places with out the kiddos (like, my OB appointments).  Gracias, parents!

::: Speaking of OB appointments... at 13 weeks I was able to have an ultrasound.  I wasn't expecting it to be a big appointment, so I opted for Aaron to stay home with the kiddos.  Little did I know that the tech was going to be able to tell that we were having a boy!  She told me at the beginning of the appointment if the baby is in the perfect position, and happens to be a boy, it's pretty easy to tell the gender, even at 13 weeks! 

BOO YAH!

A boy it was.  It was fun to go home and surprise Aaron and the kiddos with the news.  

Here are a few shots she sent home with me.

::: In case you were wanting to try out this new cereal... don't.  It's gross.  Seriously.  I hated it.  Consider yourself warned.

::: The kids come and hop into bed with me when they wake up (sadly, Aaron is typically at work by this point in time).  Tillie was in a self portrait phase (just had learned how to take photos with my phone), and wanted to take a few shots.  Obviously, Cal and I wanted in on the fun.

I love these two.

::: I finally hunkered down and purchased some food safe storage buckets.  These kind are fancy b/c they have the screw on lids, which I LOVE!!  I was so proud of myself to finally purchase these and then to FILL them with legit staples.  I hope to make my mother and mother-in-law proud.

::: Someone had a little too much fun with the rice.  I won't name names.  But I will say, it wasn't me.

::: We were heavily considering a house in a different neighborhood.  The floor plan was IDEAL and they had so many extra fun bonuses that the one we ended up with didn't have... but of course, the price was more and it wasn't on a lot we really loved.  So, in the end, it didn't win out.  But, man, it was great.  We were so serious, we even had Becca come along to take a look at the place.  Little did we realize that she and Til-face were twinners.  Here they are modeling their skirts.

::: We went to McDonalds one morning when our kitchen sink broke.  Luckily, we were renting, so it wasn't a huge deal to take care of, but I will say, not having the ability to use your kitchen sink for 3+ days is disgusting.  

The kids love anything drenched in maple syrup, so taking them to McDonalds and not having to clean up the mess proved worthwhile. 

::: Look what we found outside our local furniture shop!  Calvin was thrilled out of his mind.  And, crazy enough, every time we go back to this place this car is always there.  So funny.

::: Another lazy morning on my bed.  I was just getting into the second trimester here... but still super tired.  So, the kids came and brought me some "food" (notice it is wooden) in bed.  That was thoughtful of them.

::: The Dallas Arboretum is such a fun place to go.  We went during the Tulip Festival and it was so cool to see all the varieties of tulips there!  This is a perfect place to take two toddlers... they can run to their heart's content!  Here are the several photos we took...

Tillie (as always) loves to smell as many flowers as humanly possible.  It's pretty sweet.  Most of the pictures below are of her sniffing.  So funny.

Of course, Calvin follows her lead.

Whoa. Tillie and I were matchy-matchy.  Funny.

I loved these sculptures.

::: On another random day, we went to a little flea market/trade days event that happens every month near our house.  I thought about purchasing this sign below, but thought better of it.

Gotta love Kettle corn.

::: My sweet friend, Amanda, asked for my help printing out stickers for a gift she was giving to her relatives.  I was happy to help (this is the stuff I love to do, duh!) and it was pretty fun that she whipped up one for me too!  Pretty cute, right?  They tasted delish too.  If you want to re-create this, go to this blog and download all the delights.

::: Tillie didn't slow down with the drawings... there are several more that I need to document, but here are two more for your viewing pleasure.  I love that she has noticed that there are several different colors in people's hair.  

here's another one that I loved.

::: Oh, this boy loves Woody.  Tillie loves to be a princess (this day it was Jasmine). Dress up costumes are the best investment, I've decided. Both kids spend HOURS and HOURS in their dress ups.  More proof below.

::: Cal got a hard hat for Christmas and wanted to sleep with it one night.  Too funny.

::: As we were hunting for houses, we drove past several amazing fields.  Here was one.

Another pretty place during our house hunting.

::: We finally cleaned out our closets!  What a natural high it is to go through closets and take out things we don't wear anymore!  We have been lugging around so many sweaters and heavy clothing that just hasn't been worn here in Texas for the past few years.  And, now that we knew we were going to stay for the next while, we decided it was TIME.  I was pretty proud at how much we were able to get rid of!

::: Who needs a trampoline when you have an air mattress?

::: Remember how we talked about crafting this month?  Yes, more crafting happened.  I wanted to make some small wreaths with a big garland I had.  I thought it would be fun to hang on the armoire, but decided there were way too many circles going on in such a small area.  Also, I wasn't sure what ribbon to use, so I snapped this shot for my sisters and mom to help decide.  In the end, they got put in a box for me to use somewhere else in my life.  

::: Here I am at about 19 weeks.  

::: I found this pin on Pinterest and thought it would be the perfect project for me and the kiddos to do together.  And, in the end it was fun.  Although, since we made the bunnies so big, it took FOREVER for them to dry.  So, this seemingly "quick" project ended up taking days.  Oh well.  We were really happy with the end result.

After waiting a few days, we finally decided it would be okay to paint them.

and Viola!  here's the end result.  Our family in bunny form (yes, we created a bunny for the baby in utero---in case you thought I couldn't count).

Here they sit on my newly decorated spring mantle.  We had it decorated just in time to leave on vacation for a few weeks to Utah.  So, since I didn't get to have a lot of face time with the mantle, I left it decorated in all it's glory for months!  hA!  My mantle. My rules. (well, it's Aaron's too, but you can bet how much he cares about such things.)

And there you have it.  The month of March, 2012.