Introducing Tiegan Luisa Bowman!

Since it's Valentine's day, I guess I should share a little of the love that's filling our lives right now.

I hear there are friends out there that didn't know we are preggo, so here's another announcement- We're pregnant with number 2! We are having girl whom we are naming Tiegan Luisa Bowman. We decided that we are going to name our children after a grandparent, to carry on a family name and so that they can have someone to look to as an example in their lives as they grow up. Since Jada was named after my Mom (Lynn is my Mom's middle name and Luisa is Carmen's middle name) This one is being named after her Abuela! At first we were going with Tiegan Carmin, but it felt wrong since it's not exactly Carmen's name (one of her aunts goes by Carmin) so Tiegan Luisa it is. Actually Carmen pointed out that she was named after her Father, so in reality Tiegan will be named after her Abuela and her Bis Abuelo. The name Tiegan wasn't even on the radar, but I decided to check out one of the websites that gives names, meanings and origins and I found out that Tiegan is Aztec and means little princess in a big valley! How could I resist that?! Way too cute! http://www.momswhothink.com/baby-girl-names/baby-girl-names-a-to-z-listing.html 

 I am currently at 33 weeks and I am tired of the hippo-like....ness :) Jada is kind enough to remind me on a daily basis how big I am. Little Sweet Heart.  She is finally getting to the point that she knows she is going to be a big sister. It started when I ran out of things to put Jada's out grown clothes into so we pulled out the baby clothes. And Jada became so excited that  she and her baby sister both have stripped dresses and and flower dresses and polk-a-dot dresses etc. So She is now very excited to have baby Tiegan join us! She likes to tell me that I have a baby in my big tummy and she has a baby in her little tummy.  Of course she is kind enough to emphasize the 'big' part :) she's so honest.

 The first picture is the profile pic. During the sonogram she was quite excited to show us her fingers. The first one has her fingers at her ear and on top of her head. The second one of her feet she's grabbing her toes, still showing off those little fingers :) We might have a hand model in the family- although I have no idea where she'll get the hands for it :)

 Jada was a spoiled 3 year old this year and received $10 for Christmas from her Great Grandpa, plus another $20 from him for her birthday. And with the gift from Grandma McCombs she got a $5 gift card to Target. So on top of the ponies she was able to get she also got to buy herself some slippers.

There was a Saturday that Daniel and I were SOOO sick and Jada was amazing and completely fended for herself all day. Well, on Sunday she needed attention and was sticking her ice cold feet on my back, so I told her to either put socks on or slippers. She perked right up and said "Mom, I don't have any slippers! We need to go to the store right NOW!" I had to explain that we don't go shopping on Sunday's because it's Heavenly Father's day.

So on Monday, Jada I went to Walmart- no slippers, then Target- no slippers. Jada was NOT about to leave Target without slippers, so in order to save myself I told her we could go look at the princess store (the Disney store). And there we found them, purple Rapunzel slippers. Jada was so happy with her purchase! So in this picture she is showing off her slippers. I wish I could get the video to work because before this picture was taken she was dancing around making sure that her slippers were the center of attention :) I'll have to see if Daniel can help me get it to work later because watching Jada dance is one of the best things about being a mom :) lol please ignore the toilet paper in the background ;)

One of the things I don't have any pictures of is how good Daniel is to me. Last night he was reading some books to Jada and I just fell asleep. It was around 8:00 which is WAY early for me and the next thing I know He is putting her to bed and it's close to 10:00. It wasn't my intention to fall asleep but it's great having a husband who is more than willing to take care of our daughter because I fell asleep. Not to mention that dinner was cleaned up when I came down stairs this morning :) I couldn't ask for a better hubby!

Jada's 3rd Birthday

So our little Jada- Beta turned 3! She has bee excited for her birthday since her Grandpa McCombs had his birthday in July :) and since my birthday in November it has only gotten worse. She has taken up the habit of looking at Pinterest with me and picking out what kind of cakes and/or cupcakes she was going to have for her birthday. http://www.madeinmelskitchen.com/2009/09/kit-kat-cake/ That's the cake she was positive she was going to have. We did a downed played version of her "M&M Cake" She was just as happy with it because she still got her giant bag of M&M's :)

Her Grandpa and Abuela Bowman came to OP on Saturday and she got spoiled rotten by them (no surprise) and she got another Barbie (that makes 4 now), Barbie clothes, and Candyland! She already is pretty darn good at playing, but she cheats like you wouldn't believe :) She only plays on the purple squares or the pink squares with the little symbols on them!

Because I'm too stupid to figure out the dumb picture thing.... the next picture down is Jada blowing out her candles one a cupcake she decorated herself with M&M's (I put the candles on though) The ponies on either side of the cupcake she bought with some money that her Great-Grandpa Lanier gave her for her birthday! She felt SOOO special being able to buy that herself! She was dancing through the whole store when I told her she could take the ponies home with her.

For as excited as she was for her birthday party, it was kind of a flop :/ We were never able to get a hold of one of the kids, and 1 didn't show up at all, 2 of them showed up when the party was "ending" (according to the invitations) and only one showed up at the time he was supposed to. So instead of having 6 kids do the activities it was only 2 of them. In the picture with the tiny frogs they were melting balls of ice to get the frog in the middle. Turns out that the two of them had allot of fun doing that. Obviously it would have allot more fun to do that activity outside, but it was barely pushing 40 degrees :( But this is where I got the ice idea (we'll be doing it again when the weather warms up) http://alittlelearningfortwo.blogspot.com/2011/09/ice-eggs.html Jada had a blast though. It took her 2 days to recover :)

And last but not least, There is a picture of Jada feeling BEAUTIFUL on her birthday! She loves the outfit that her Aunt Jaci picked out for her (a Christmas present) and always feel like a princess in it because of the silky part :) All-in-all Jada had a wonderful birthday and is sure that it will continue to be her birthday for a while yet :)

Gratitude for a Legacy

Last summer I started a project for my Grandpa Lanier. I was scanning all their slide show pics and putting them onto CD's for him. How ever I did not have the means to store all the pictures so they've been on Chelsea's computer. And since we are in Rexburg for a few days before we head on to Colville, I was finally able to get all the pictures. I was able to scan some old photos and letters to Grandma from Grandpa shortly before she joined him in Germany, ashortly after which they got married.

The letters were sappy and sweet and a different side of Grandpa that I've never seen before. They take place shortly after they met and then he was sent to Germany for the Army. Their correspondence led to an engagement and an agreement for Grandma to travel all alone by boat, then train half way across the world to meet him in Allied occupied Germany. It amazes me that she would be willing to do that all alone. But I guess thats the difference between this era and that one. With todays advanced communications, it would be easier to continue a long distance relationship for longer periods of time. I would have never thought of Grandma and Grandpa Lanier as the "romantic" type. But the letter by Grandpa were so sweet! Any way, These are some of my favorite pictures that I scanned! Enjoy!

Together on some ship. I'm not sure if this on the way home or not, But it is a great picture!

First Family photo that I know of. The Baby is my Uncle Tim who was born in Germany

This is several years later. I can only assume that this is My uncle Tim (far right) and Aunts Colleen (far left) and Moneta (middle) watching a parade in Mesa, AZ. I love everything about this picture!

Speaking of loving everything thing about a picture, this one is back in Germany with baby Tim. I love how tender this picture is!

Pre-Mother's Day Fun

I spent the week in Topeka, Helping Daniel's Mom around while she heals from her second knee surgery. Daniel's been in OP all week, so when he came to Topeka this weekend he wanted to do go on a date and do mini golf, I told him I'd rather take Jada to use that never ending 2 year old energy. (it's been really hard to use that energy all week). So we took her and she had a great time! That is, until she tried to grab the balls of the players behind us and I told her "no". we carried her threw the next 6 holes. Then we got to the end and she was SOOOOO upset that she didn't get to keep her ball! Her only consolation was that she got to keep the club, but only 'till I ripped it out of her hands and handed it back to the guy at the counter :(

But you guys shouldn't feel too bad for Daniel for not being able to go on a date with his wife, we went later that night :) here's a holler to 'the Classic Bean' for being our favorite place in Topeka! Best Hot Chocolate EVER!

Finally Some Videos

After every holiday we have this problem. Jada knows there's treats in the house and I struggle to get her to eat anything else. She did eventually eat the apples, she love them- she just needs to be reminded every now and then ;)

The other video is self explanatory, but sooo entertaining!

Happy Easter!

How Glorious is the gospel of Jesus Christ! Doesn't Easter just make you want to sing "I KNOW that my Redeemer Lives" from the mountain tops?! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oteno81QzzQ I'm sure most of you saw this already but I really like it.

I went in to get Jada this morning and said, "Do you wanna go see what the Easter bunny got you?" and she told me "No bunny. Not a bunny. Notty bunny." all I could say was, "Your right."

Daniel and I were lucky enough to be able to leave Jada with Paul, Carmen and Eric last night while we went on a date. They colored eggs with her, which she had a great time doing! When Daniel and I got home last night we were making the Easter baskets and discovered Paul didn't have one so Daniel wanted to make him a brown paper bunny. so I made one, but Daniel wanted it and wanted to make Paul's brown paper bunny look gimpy. So here are our baskets, Jada and mine look great, and Daniel and Paul's look sad :)

Happy Easter Every one!!!

Spring Time Projects

So the KC metro area has this wonderful thing every spring called 'Bulky trash'. For one month every spring sections of the area are allowed to put anything and everything onto the side of the road and the garbage people will pick anything up. However it's not all garbage, for example I was able to get two 6-pane old fashioned windows that still had price stickers on them!!! Each weekend in the month is a different area and last weekend happened to be a "rich" area. I didn't go myself, but sent Daniel instead- i didn't have high hopes. However Daniel did really well! He found a really nice cement pot which I am so excited about, an entertainment center in really good shape and a solid wooden side table! The table was extremely ugly, but I fixed it! I only had white paint and some stain so that what I did, I'll probably change it at a later date (aka when we have money!) but for now it'll do and it turned out surprisingly well!!

Other than that, were just finishing out another PT year (they start in June and end in May), Jada is potty training, and we're getting ready to spend the entire summer in WA!!!!!)

Before

After

Better after pic