It's a...

We've seen a lot of girl ultrasounds in our time. Between our three girls, my sister Gabby's two girls, and my brother Harrison's baby girl-to-be (due in July) our family knows girls well! So we knew immediately when we saw the ultrasound that is baby was.... a BOY!!!! And he is proud of it too!

We are thrilled and completely shocked. Hazel has been hoping this baby would be a boy all along and was so happy. Michael is over the moon. Seriously he was silly smiley all evening thinking about his son. Most importantly, he looks very healthy and is growing right on track!

We can't wait to meet this little guy in October! The girls sure were excited to look at all the ultrasound pictures. He will be very loved. 

Spring in Iowa!

Maybe it is the colder winters here, but spring has never felt so good as it has this year. Spring time in Iowa has been beautiful! The weather is nice, we love the mixture of rainy days and sunny days, and it's so green!

I've started planting our garden. The soil is an amazing shade of deep black that is soft and so easy to work. And I have yet to water anything at all. It's such a different experience from what I'm used to! Now we'll just see if I can keep the squirrels and rabbits away long enough to harvest anything. 

Hazel's ABC countdown to the end of the school year continues. Today was T day and Michael got to attend for "Treats with Dad." She taught her class to sign a portion of one of the songs they sang and wrote this adorable message on her table spot. 

I love how you work for our family. I love you Daddy! I will love you forever!

They also had a "Muffins with Mom" day the week of Mother's day. I loved spending time with just her at school and seeing the sweet book she wrote for me. I didn't get any pictures though. Of course since Hazel and I had a special time that meant Eliza needed in on the action too. So we had cookies with Mom after lunch. 

Michael went to present at their career day and taught the kids some animal signs. They really enjoyed it! Hazel told me they were supposed to write what they wanted to be when they grow up. She said she wrote, "I WILL be a mom when I grow up." I'm proud of that sweet girl!

I enjoyed a wonderful mother's day. I have the world best husband and kids who spoiled me and truly made me feel loved. They got me all outfitted for Iowa spring with a new light jacket and rain boots. Plus I got a beautiful orchid for my kitchen window. I feel so blessed to be a mom!

Little Lenora has found a love of shoes. She likes to bring me random shoes throughout the day. She spends half her time walking around something like this. And by the end of the day her shoes are scattered everywhere around the house. She's also decided she likes to dress up as and loves to twirl. Such a girly girl already!

Eliza has claimed this little tree in our yard has her tree because "it's just the same size as me!" She's loved spending time outside and is my little garden helper. She has also kept me well stocked in dandelion bouquets. Yellow flowers that she's allowed to pick is a dream come true for her.

One evening we spotted a toad in our yard! I managed to keep Kiara from killing it while Michael grabbed it. Hazel surprised me by holding him and really enjoying it. Eliza loved looking at him but refused to touch him. Lenora thought it was great and would have held him if we trusted her not to eat it.

Ah spring! We love you. Even if you're exhausting...

High Bridge Horse Farm

Eliza riding Pete.

Big Plans for this Fall

Some very exciting things will be happening in our house this fall. First off....

Michael will be starting his Doctorate at Drake University!  He was accepted in to their Education and Leadership Doctorate program. Best of all, the set up of the program is such that he can continue to work full time at ISU and attend classes some Friday evenings and Saturdays. It will be busy for sure, but I'm so proud of him. Dr. Ballard here he comes!

Our other big news for this fall is baby number four will be joining us in October!!! We are excited to have another sweet little one in our home. I'm 16 weeks along already and definitely showing. Though I've been refusing to break out the maternity clothes yet haha. I'm feeling really good right now, but this time around my first trimester was pretty rough. I'm always really tired so that was to be expected. This time though I was really, really nauseous as well. Everything sounded gross all the time. It made me realize how spoiled I was the first three times around. Maybe this is a boy?? We'll find out in about another month!

Little peanut about 8 weeks!

It's going to be a crazy, busy fall, but busy in very great ways!

A Moment in Time

I wish sometimes I could freeze a day in time and re-open it whenever I'd like. I would love to go back and relive some of our best day and remember exactly what my girls were like and different ages. They grow and change so much so quickly! So here's my snippet of time right now...

Hazel:
I cannot believe Hazel is almost done with Kindergarten. "There's only 23 days left mom" she could tell me should I ask her. She becomes more independent and opinionated every day. In some areas I'm so glad to see her mind so set. Her testimony is strong and she eagerly shares the gospel. She even gave a Book of Mormon to one of her friends at school! In other areas I wish she'd slow down the independence a bit - like in the kitchen. On Easter she burned her chin trying to smell a pan of freshly baked rolls and then cut herself with a knife while trying to slice bread the very next day!

Burnt chin and a cut finger!

Hazel still LOVES reading. She started listening to the Junie B. Jones books at school and is now hooked on them. We've read the first 15 books in the series since February! In school they're doing an ABC count down to the end of the year. She's been so excited about each day. Here she is with her "bubble gum pants" and "bubble gum hair" on bubble gum day.

Hazel and Kiara have recently become better friends. Kiara likes to play with Hazel and will sometimes choose her over Michael or I to cuddle up next to. Hazel was also very proud of herself for helping me walk Kiara the other day.

Of course, as the oldest Hazel continues to be the ring leader of crazy shenanigans around our house. Like showing Eliza that an umbrella make a better bucket than a shield in the pouring rain. But she also had moments where she is genuinely helpful. Today she saw a stack of diapers sitting in Lenora's room that I'd set out to take downstairs. Without being asked she picked them all up and put them away in their place downstairs!

Eliza:
Sweet Eliza has done a lot of growing recently. She's growing taller and bigger! But she's also really coming out of her shell. She used to be very timid around other kids and would mostly just watch them. Since I've been working at the YMCA she's been learning to play more and more without Hazel around. She has a best friend named Grace and they are so cute together. Eliza is still completely obsessed with the color yellow. Right now, she is loving all the "yellow flowers" (aka dandelions) she keeps seeing. I always have a few dandelion bouquets hanging around the house and I love it!

Eliza also says the funniest things sometimes. Just now she told me, "I made up a song about not sleeping on the ceiling. Because it's dangerous. You will fall and bonk your head." Eliza loves being in Primary. She's in the only girl in a class full of rowdy boys. Her teacher's say she's also so good and answers their questions. She is always able to tell us what she learned that day. She also sang the whole time when the kids sang for Easter. I'm so proud of how well she is learning the gospel!

One day I found Eliza "studying her scriptures"

Last week Eliza found a dime and two pennies that she carried around most of the week. Friday morning I was busy taking care of a sick Lenora and helping Hazel get ready for school when I looked over to see Eliza with the most sad expression on her face. "I swallowed my dime!" she told me. She was super distraught over swallowing it. But after a while she was telling me, "It's okay. A dime is the smallest one!"

Just eating our snack mom!

Lenora:
My little baby is growing up! Lenora is now 15 months old, 22 pounds, and 30 inches tall. For months and months we thought she would start walking any day. She could stand, and take a few steps, but she just didn't want to walk! She loved pushing this bike around the house like a walker. Finally, just last week she started actually walking around.

Just walking with a puzzle piece in my mouth!

Lenora is such a silly girl. She LOVES to wrestle with her big sisters. She loves making silly faces at people and will laugh out loud at herself. Other other day she found my goggles and wore them for over 5 minutes with a cute smirk on her face.

Lenora loves reading books just like her big sisters. "Old McDonald had a Farm" is her favorite and she always says "baa" when we get to the sheep page. She's starting to say more and more words and pick up more signs. The other day Hazel said grandma for some reason and all the sudden Lenora perked up. She signed "Gram" then looked over to where we always keep the laptop and pointed and pointed. Then she signed, "please". She wanted to Skype with my mom! I love that she can communicate such complex ideas with us already! 

Lenora still loves to eat. String cheese is one of her favorites and she literally eats a string cheese for snack every morning. Lenora also loves to do anything her big sisters are doing. She puts headbands in her hair, slings purses over her arms, and generally follows their every move. I love to see how much they adore her. Hazel always gets Lenora out of her crib every morning and usually will read her a few books before they come downstairs. Eliza is always helping her get in to mischief  reach things and watching out for her.

We're so blessed to have these sweet girls! I wish I could freeze time 

Easter 2015

Easter was perfect! General Conference and a small egg hunt on Saturday. Enjoying Conference and an amazing meal with friends on Sunday. Most of all, rejoicing in the knowledge that we'll be a family forever because of the sacrifice and resurrection of our Savior. 

Hotwheels FHE

Every Monday evening we try and have Family Home Evening (FHE) where we teach our children simple gospel lessons and spend time as a family. Most weeks it's a very simple, short lesson squeezed in between dinner and bed time. But once in a while we try and do a bit more. A few weeks ago we had a great FHE with a Hotwheels theme. 

We started with a lesson about prophets and apostles. I had the girls drive their cars on a map. Some of the places they were able to drive to. Other were not on the map because their map didn't show those places. They needed a different map. We talked about how we have the scriptures as a great map that help us a lot. But we still need modern revelation because sometimes things changes (ie- new road/place are built). Prophets help keep our maps current and keep us heading back to Heavenly Father in our ever changing world. They really listened well! 

Then we had "dirt cups" for dessert and had a Hotwheels "elite eight" competition. Each of us (besides Lenora) picked two cars and we raced them on Michael's track. Both Hazel and Eliza's cars whooped on ours! Hazel ended up winning with her car Sparkle Perfect!

Most weeks FHE is hard and it doesn't seem like anyone learns much. But I'm so thankful for the weeks when it is meaningful and our kids remember what we talked about. Hotwheels night was a great FHE!

I Love you Through and Through by Hazel

 Hazel wrote her own version of the book I Love you Through and Through. She did this all by herself one morning. The only thing I helped her with was spelling through the first time. It was such a parenting pay off moment for us! Thank you Hazel! We love you too!

I love you through and through! Hazel, Mom & Dad

Mommy I love you through and through! I love the way you make food. 

Daddy I love the way you wrestle with me!

Mommy I love the way you read books to me!

Daddy I love the way you work hard for our family!

Mommy I love the way you play with me!