Honor Service Award

David and I helped Drew on Sunday pick out 10 toys that he doesn't play with anymore and that he would like to give to other children who may not have the toys he does. He picked out even more than 10 and then bagged them up and donated them to Good Will. Drew said he felt happy when he did that and David told him how proud we were of him.

Because Drew's primary wants to know when a child does an act of service, on Sunday, David told the primary presidency of Drew's service. He received the Honor Service award which included a medal-like award with his picture on one side and the words Honor Service on the other. What a cute idea to encourage kids to serve others!

Baby Pistorius - 9 weeks

Baby Pistorius #3 is officially due October 22. I had an ultrasound today at 9 weeks to make sure everything is going okay due to my history of miscarriage. We saw his/her heart beating which is always neat to see. We saw its "arm and leg buds" as the technician labeled them, the spinal cord, and brain matter. The baby seems to be doing fine and that is great news to us. I meet with the dr. next week for the first time. I hope I like her - I've been known to switch doctors before (in GA) so we'll see. Still nothing compares to having a baby in Utah - we were so spoiled there!

David and Dilan were able to attend the ultrasound with me. David did bet me right before we went in that it was twins but we did only see ONE baby in there. I showed Drew the picture of his brother/sister when he got out of school and he had all kinds of interesting questions. He wanted to know how the baby got into mommy's belly and how it was going to come out. I gave the vague (when mommy's and daddy's love each other, they can make a baby together) speech on the first but actually told him the real answer on the second, followed up by the "we don't talk about private parts anywhere but home speech." So, this should be interesting - who would know these questions come as early as 4 years old???

We are excited and as always, seeing the baby made it become more real. I have been very tired lately but the nausea seems to have receded. The only time I get nauseated now is when I take my prenatal pill.

My prediction? It's a boy... the reason is because I felt way worse with Dilan, much more nauseated, throwing up even and with Drew I felt better as I do with this one. I could totally be wrong, but that's my prediction at 9 weeks along. If it is a girl, I will be thrilled though - I mean this one is either a brother for Drew or a sister for Dilan and you just can't beat that.

Jennifer's Visit to Wisconsin

One of my dearest friends from Houston came to visit me from Sat. night until Wed. morning. We had a day to our selves (without kids) and even a night out to dinner (without kids). That was fabulous but even more, just being together was really special. Jennifer and I met when we were 18 years old as freshmen in college. Once we met, we were joined at the hip after that - well, that is until her hubby came along! ;) But our friendship is going on 15 years now and she has visited me in every place I have moved to now.

We went to Madison to see the beautiful capitol building there and get a tour, we visited downtown Waukesha, ate some yummy gelato and walked along the Fox River; we also went to Pewaukee Lake (beachfront). Our last day we spent in the search of Wisconsin cheese and we went to the Milwaukee Public Museum and saw the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit.

Our final night, we celebrated Jennifer's birthday by going to the Melting Pot - it was delicious! Thanks, Jennifer, for taking time out of your spring break to come and see me!!!

A girl and her pup

The weather has gotten so nice here this week - yes, it may still be in the 50s but to us with the sun shining, it means Spring! It has been beautiful. My favorite kind of weather - sunny, bright, with a breeze enough to wear a light jacket. I took Dilan outside for some 1yr old shots in her purple dress. The best ones I got were of her interacting with Beva. And yes, she has learned to give kisses now - they are just the open-mouth kind of ones.

Weekend in Chicago!

The weekend after Valentine's Day was quite a shock for me. Thursday night, my sister, Keely, flew into town to surprise me. Her husband, Lars, came in the next day. Come to find out David and Keely had been planning this for over a month. Even better, I got to spend some time with my sister and then even more surprises came about. David was taking me to Chicago from Friday night until Sunday morning and Keely and Lars were watching our kids. I could barely believe they pulled this off!

I have to admit it was hard to leave my sister at my house without me being there when I rarely get to see her anyway but I knew she wanted me to have this trip and did a lot to make it happen for me. So, David and I took off to Chicago and decided to go straight there and eat Chicago-style pizza at Gino's East like some of my friends had suggested. It took us longer to get there than we thought considering the traffic - yes, Chicago had traffic at 9p.m. on a Friday night! I began to appreciate Houston a little bit more at this point. By the time we got to the restaurant we were starving - little did we know it takes 45 minutes to bake a deep-dish pizza! But we were game so I thought I would give David MY Valentine's gift. Just to set this up, David was talking about the details of the surprise that he was able to keep from me and then he said, it was my turn to surprise him next. So, I thought I had just the thing...

Side note here: I took a pregnancy test on Sunday, Valentine's Day. I was a few days early in wanting to know if I was pregnant but I thought it would be neat to find out on that day. The test came up negative (David even saw it and confirmed it). So, by the end of the week (three days late now), I was wondering what was going on. My sister came in town Thursday night and while David was at work Friday, I took another test in the morning with Keely there. It immediately came up positive. I was shocked but excited. So, I decided to wrap up the pregnancy test in a box (blue box with pink paper) and give it to David that night at dinner, for my surprise to him.

Here are the pictures from Gino's East where David found out we were expecting... (by the way, he smiled and said, "I knew it!")

David reserved a 5-star hotel right on the mile for our wonderful weekend. Saturday morning we went by Oprah's studios.

Then, we went to the Chicago temple and were able to do sealings for my family.

That night we walked the mile and it was all lit up and really pretty. The weather was cloudy that day so we didn't think the Willis Tower would be worth the view that day and thought we could come back and do that another time.

We ended our night with a fantastic steak dinner at Fleming's. It was delicious!

We arrived back home Sunday morning and were excited to see that Keely and Lars were still smiling. They did such a good job with our kids - I was SO impressed! They are going to be such good parents one day. We gave souvenirs to the kiddos and I was able to spend the rest of the day with my sister and Lars before they left that evening. I can't thank them enough for such a great weekend and for David surprising me like that. It was awesome.

Dilan has something to say...

...she's pretty excited to become a big sister. This event will hopefully happen late October for our family! :)

Date night with the Milwaukee Admirals

David and I were invited by some wonderful friends for a night out that included dinner and a Milwaukee Admirals game. We actually hired a babysitter (I know, GASP!) and we had a great time! The seats were second row and we thoroughly enjoyed when the players were thrown up against the glass right in front of us. Unfortunately, the admirals lost the game but it was a lot of fun to watch. Maybe they lost because there were actually no fights on the ice which I couldn't believe - maybe they need to play a little dirtier next time.

Funniest part of the break between the first and second periods - Cheese spreads skating around the rink in a race. Only in Wisconsin do they have a cheese product doing this!

The Admirals' pirate ship that threw out t-shirts into the stands.

Us at the game.

A picture of us in front of the Bradley center. Yes, we both almost slipped off that bench trying to stand on it for the picture.

Thanks, Hudsons, for a fabulous night out - our turn to plan the next one!

By the way, the kids did great - Drew liked the babysitter a lot and asked us why we came home so early (we were gone for five hours). I think we need to take advantage of this time where they are both able to be with a sitter! :)