Boy, Oh Boy!

Baby #3 is boy #2!! We found out this last week that we are expecting another baby boy. For the third time in a row I found out that I am out of tune with my mother's intuition and was shocked when the ultra sound technician said it was boy. I really felt like it was going to be a girl, but we are delighted with the news. Mackayla took it very well also and is excited to keep the title of "my best girl!" Even better news is that the ultrasound revealed that our baby boy looks very healthy!

As soon as we got home from the ultrasound Mackayla wanted to have a pretend ultrasound of her own. Her baby is also doing very well; however, she is having a baby girl.
Our new home! The planned closing date is April 8th. We'll then plan on moving day either being April 18th or 25th depending on how fast or slow we want to do the move.

We needed to buy a fridge for the house and have been watching ksl (on-line classifieds) for a good deal. We found a GREAT deal on fridge that was only a year old yesterday and bought it. When Jared picked it up the lady threw in this big dora house/tent for free. This solved the problem of having a living room with no living room furniture. Our new living room will just be the dora house room. :)

We got Bradley his new bedding for when he moves up to his big boy bed. Now, we just have to find a single mattress for him. Anybody need to get rid of one?? I'm hoping to be able to set up his new bed and his crib in the boy's room of our new house and let him transition into it over the next few months. He loves the animals, especially the elephants.

We had a great week with Grandpa and Grandma Hatfield here. We rarely go out to eat so its always a treat to do so when they are visiting.

Bradley and Grandpa sleeping.

St. Patrick's, Spring, and A House

Bradley spent the entire last week sick and miserable. We had a hard time keeping his fever down, especially at night and he was so stuffed up he could hardly breath. I was up with him the whole night for many nights in a row. I absolutely love holidays, even St. Patricks day, but because of the no sleep thing I was so out of it I didn't even realize it was St. Patricks Day until mid-morning. I had to redress everyone and tried to still make it a fun day for Mackayla. Jared had a very busy week at work (and was also sick) and so he didn't make it home in time for dinner. We had a very simple dinner of green eggs and toast.

After Jared got home we were able to enjoy some green pudding with him before bed.

I'm happy to report that both Bradley and Jared are finally starting to feel better! :)

The kids playing twister

Jared working out with Bradley.

The potty train

We're so happy spring is finally here and are loving spending time outdoors again.

Hanging out with Strawberry

Grandpa and Grandma Hatfield arrived this weekend for a visit and we are all loving having them here!

Grandma getting her hair done by Mackayla and Bradley

The family resting at Cabellas

The Jones Family

Bradley was interested in purchasing this truck-tent thing and decided to try it out. He thought it was great but has to save a little money first.

Our big news of the week is that things have finally worked out and we are buying a house! We will probably be closing in the next couple weeks. It's a big house in Lehi that was bank owned and we got an amazing deal on it. Anyway, we've got a lot to do and think about now as a move is in the near future!

Sleep

Since becoming parents, I'm sure sleep is something we'll never take for granted again. The nights were actually going great for awhile and then for the last few weeks both kids have quit sleeping. They have also moved their wake up time to 5:30-6:00am. I really wanted to get pictures of the kids sleeping. Not just because children look like peaceful little angles when they are asleep, but because their sleeping represents something wonderful to me...a time when I can sleep!

Ever since Mackayla was a baby, we've had to stick to the most exact routine to get her to actually sleep. Now that she's a little older she doesn't need the routine so much, but her bed has to be set up EXACTLY right. Hoppy, her bunny, needs to be right beside her. Then she first needs her Cinderella blanket on. Next, the big pink blanket, and finally the sheet and comforter casually flopped on top of her. If everything is not just right she will not settle down.

This picture is a rare treasure to me. I didn't think I'd ever get a good picture of Mackayla sleeping in her bed since she never takes naps and she gets up long before the sun rises so it's always dark when she's sleeping. However, on friday, after throwing a LONG screaming fit in her bed (because I tried to make her get dressed, I know I'm a horrible mother) she actually fell asleep. I put Bradley down at the same time and had both kids asleep for almost two hours! I got so much done in that time. I can't even imagine how different my life would be and how much I would accomplish if I had an hour or two to myslef every afternoon. Although, I do enjoy having some Mommy & Mackayla time every day while Bradley is sleeping.

I've been getting up MANY times each night between getting the kids back to sleep and needing to go to the bathroom (pregnancy). Last night the kids both slept all night and I was so out of it I didn't wake up at all! I slept for six straight hours!! Then I woke up with a rare migraine that I think was triggered because my body wasn't use to so much sleep. Isn't that a funny thing?!

Our Little School Boy
Bradley is 16 months already so Mackayla and I decided it was time for him to start going to school. :) Mackayla wanted to help be a teacher for Bradley's school. She rings the school bell (it's imaginary), and they both get so excited. This week we have been teaching him his colors. He loves pointing to all of them and saying their names. With Mackayla helping, the first color we worked on was, of course, pink.


Each day we do a march to practice the color. Bradley LOVES it.
This is a picture of him doing the march that went...
Marching! Marching! Marching!
Touch your head!
Marching! Marching! Marching!
Can you find something red?

This is Bradley's favorite place to watch TV. We keep having to move him back.

Bradley asking his Dad for some tips on using the potty.

Our little snowman

I gave Mackayla a couple of old tank tops I used to exercise in and told her they could be her dancing shirts. She loves to put them on and dance. Last week while her Grandpa and Grandma were in Hawaii she wanted to do the hula dance.

Valentine's Day

We had a great Valentine's day. It was fun having Jared with us for the whole day. We started out with heart pancakes. Actually, the heart shape wasn't working out too well for us, so we just drew hearts in the pancakes.

That afternoon, we finally tried out the cotton candy machine that Grandpa and Grandma gave the kids for Christmas.


Jared and I love to go out on a date when we have a chance and always enjoy going to a nice dinner together, but neither of us have any desire to fight the crowds on Valentines's night so we started a tradition a few years ago of making a heart shaped pizza for our Valentine dinner.

With the kids both in bed by 8:00 we still had pleanty of time to enjoy our Valentine's Day. I know a lot of people do extravagant or expensive things for each other, but I think the perfect Valentine's day doesn't require either of those things. Jared built a nice fire and had some "vintage 1908 sparkling cider" for us. He told me some very romantic things such as, we've been together for one twentieth of a century. I hadn't realized it had been so long. Not everyone is lucky enough to find a love that last so long. Anyway, with the perfect mood set we sat by the fire and discussed politics (the stimulus package) and went to sleep.

I love having such a romantic husband.

The kids felt very loved this Valentine's day. Grandpa Hatfield sent me and them some valentine's chocolates and of course those were a big hit with everyone!

Papa and Nini sent the kids both a little baby doll V-day gift as well. They've had a great time taking care of the babies.

Bradley -Elmo

Bradley really likes it when we take his picture. He was purposely hamming it up for this one. (My sisters would probably tell you he gets that from me.)

This is Bradley and Mackayla putting on Family Home Evening for us. Mackayla had everyone open their hymn books and then we sang Old McDonald had a farm. Bradley was in charge of the lesson and taught us to love all of Heavenly Father's creatures, such as all the animals he had with him on the couch.

The other day while Jared was on his way home from work, Mackayla and I decided to give Bradley a new hairdo to suprise Daddy. He looked so cute. Jared's responce was "oh, you poor little guy!"

Mackayla gave her first talk in Primary today!! She did a great job and didn't act nervous at all, which kind of suprised Jared and me. Grandma really wanted to hear her talk, so we took a video of her practicing right before church. Its hard to hear, and a little long, so this video might not be of interest to anyone besides her grandparents. :)

Back to the Blogging Again

I've been too tired to do anything productive once the kids are in bed lately, which is why I haven't been keeping up on our family blog albumn. I'm into the second trimester now and rarely feel sick anymore, so I really have nothing to complain about. I hope to start getting a little more energy back now though. I'm at that FUN stage where I can no longer button any of my pants but still a long ways from filling out any maternity clothes! I'm actually really excited about getting bigger and digging out the maternity clothes. I can't wait to start feeling our little baby moving around. Desptite ALL the hard things that come with pregnancy I really do love being pregnant. :)

Here are some pictures from the last few weeks.

Mackayla and Bradley are still the best of friends. This is a picture of them watching sesame street together at 6am. We're very grateful that sesame street comes on at 6am because we can always turn it on for them and then lay on the couch and try to sleep until at least 7. Unfortunatly, they are up almost everyday to see at least the second half of it.

Reading books together after a bath.

Enjoying their superbowl party. They got to have a picnic with our homemade pizza since neither Jared nor I wanted to leave the game to sit at the table with them.

Sitting in their favorite chair.

Bradley LOVES having his picture taken.

You can see in this picture that Bradley is yelling "Cheese" as he waits for me to take his picture.

He's doing a little fishing for Family Home Evening afer a lesson on what it means to be fishers of men.

We were so happy last week that April and her family were able to come visit us for one night.
This is Mackayla and Jaden saying goodbye.


Logan and Bradley sharing a goldfish snack.

Thanks for coming Holts!

Our Sunbeam and a Haircut

After several attempts...

This is the best picture we could get of Mackayla on her first day of going to sunbeams. She loved going to primary! With a lot more structure we think she'll enjoy primary much more than she did nursery. We're now working on learning all the primary songs that they'll be singing this year.

Bradley's hair was just getting too long, so we finally had to give him a real haircut. Jared wanted to do the cutting and he did a great job.

This is a before picture of Bradley's haircut. Just in the last few days Bradley is always wanting to sit on the potty after his sister uses it. Nothing has happened while he's been sitting there but he sits for a long time saying, "potty" poo poo" and "pee pee." He might not know how to use the potty yet, but he does have the language down.

Bradley had always been a hat-lover. Mackayla just got a couple new hats and Bradley proudly wears them all over the house.

Mackayla hanging out in the "dog house" with her dogs.

Sunset picture taken by Jared from our front porch.