Saying good-bye to an old friend

Today my best buddy and pet passed away. He was the best dog any girl could ask for. I begged my parents for a puppy and they finally gave me one for my 14th birthday. My dad wanted him the least, but Quigley softened him up on no time. That dog preferred my dad over anyone else and eventually my dad because just as attached to him. He has been my most loyal friend. He slept on my bed every night up until the time I moved out of my parents house. He had the most playful spirit. I loved him so much that when I was pregnant with Kayla, Brandon worried that I wouldn't be able to love our daughter as much because I was giving it all to Quigley. The last year or so he has started getting very sick and today he decided he had had enough. I'm so grateful that he chose to pass away on a day that my whole family was gathered together for Thanksgiving. My mom and brother sat with him and pet him while he took his last breaths. A part of me wished that I could have been in Utah to grieve with my family, but I am also glad that I wasn't there to see him die. I can just remember him for what he was. I will miss his greeting when we come for Christmas. I'm so thankful I got to spend 12 wonderful years with him.

We're having a BOY!!!!!

We are having a boy!!! We are beyond excited! We had our ultrasound last week and Brandon could tell it was a boy within 3 seconds of looking but he didn't say anything. He is trained with ultrasounds so it took me a little longer, but I saw it for myself before the tech even told us. We are so happy that we will have a boy and girls in our family. We would have been just as excited if it was another girl, but I do know for sure that I don't want a family of all girls. I want both genders represented so now a lot of pressure has lifted and we are ecstatic! I can't wait to have a little boy. I love their energy and I can't wait to buy little boy clothes! Four more months and we get to meet him!

R.I.P.

We got back from Utah last week and Brandon surprised the girls by buying them four goldfish the day we were coming home. Unfortunately two of the fish died within a few hours. The remaining two fish died sometime during the drive to Des Moines and back when he went to pick us up. When we walked in the door the two little fishies were belly up. So, Monday for family night we went back to the pet store and bought four more fish. The girls were so excited. Three of them made it through the night and then each day we lost one more. I was getting sick of seeing dead fish floating around in a bowl and I was even more sick of seeing what the other fish do to the dead fish. I don't know what this one fish was doing, but he looked like he was trying to eat the dead fish. He would just lurk around it and run into it over and over again with it's face. It really gave me the creeps. Finally with three fish dead and only one living I told Brandon to flush it down the toilet because I knew it was only a matter of time before that one went belly up as well. He took care of it and flushed in down the toilet. We did this without Kayla and Tessa's knowledge. Later Kayla came into the bathroom and started laughing hysterically because the fish somehow survived the flush and was swimming around in the toilet bowl. The girls got a big kick out of that. We put some food in the toilet and since we have two toilets we decided to leave it in the toilet and see how long it would last. It lasted until the next day so I flushed it down. I don't know what the deal is. They were only $.28 each, but we couldn't seem to keep them alive. Rest in peace little fishies. We are going to take a break from purchasing more fish for awhile. I can't take any more deaths.

Fun with family

We just got back to Iowa last night from a three week trip to Utah. We had such a great time. The girls had fun playing with their aunts and uncles and they loved all the attention they got form grandparents. I love everything about Utah! I love the weather, the people, family, THE WEATHER, and the mountains. I'm so happy we got to go out there again. We went a few months ago and on our way home it took us two days to fly because of cancellations and dumb United Airline employees. For our trouble they gave me some vouchers so we needed to use them up before the next baby came and we had already bought our Christmas tickets so I picked a time when Brandon would be the busiest and we boogied on out of Iowa. We fit a lot into those three weeks. We went down to St. George for part of a day; we played in the canyon; we went to a Halloween party; we hit all the restaurants that I crave when I'm in Iowa by eating out A LOT; we went to Gardner Village; and we did a lot more things that I just can't remember right now. I didn't do great at taking very many pictures but here are a few.
My dad's work lets kids come in and trick-or-treat. Luckily my mom had some fun things for the girls to dress up in because we hadn't brought costumes with us. It turned out to be really fun. I was surprised at the amount of people that were there. Apparently Symantec is a popular place to trick-or-treat. Tessa is dressed up as a little leopard.

Kayla is my beautiful fairy princess.

Every day is dress up day at our house. Tessa looks like she is wearing some kind of turban :)

My grandma was there visiting from Delaware for the first three days we visited. She hadn't seen Kayla since she was a newborn and she has never seen Tessa. We had to get a four generation picture.

My crazy family!

Baby #3!!

Yes! We are expecting baby number three! We are so excited! This picture is actually a picture of Tessa's ultrasound. I am 14 weeks along and doing well. I think the worst is behind me. Up until last week I was feeling very sick and practically nonfunctional, but now I feel a lot better and I am so happy about that. It's hard to have two little ones that need my constant attention and not have the energy to help them. We feel so blessed to be expecting this new addition to the family. I have no inclination as to what the gender is. All three of my pregnancies have been very different. When I was pregnant with Tessa I was positive she was a boy, just because of the difference between her pregnancy and Kayla's. This time around I have no idea. We really want a boy someday so we would be ecstatic if it is, but I have also loved every minute of my life with my two girls so I would not be disappointed in the least to have another one.
Tessa of course has no idea what is going on, but Kayla is at a fun age where she understands and is really excited. Kayla wants it to be a boy named Charlie. When we were visiting in Utah a few months ago, my parent's neighbor had a little newborn baby named Charlie and she was loving seeing the baby so now she thinks we are having a Charlie of our own. Don't worry Mandy we aren't going to steal your name :) I will be sure to post in 6 weeks when we know the gender.

Hats off to Dad and Garrett!

I'm so proud of my dad and my little brother. On Sept. 11th they participated in the craziest bike race I have ever heard of. It's 206 miles from Logan Utah to Jackson Hole Wyoming. It took them 12 hours to complete the race including stops to refuel (you gotta eat a lot if you are using that much energy!) My dad as of late has become a bicycling maniac, if you will. He would do it all day every day if it was socially acceptable and if he didn't have to go to work every day to provide for his family. I'm glad he and Garrett got the chance to do this. They had a blast and it always feels great to accomplish something so challenging. Way to go guys!!!

First day of Preschool!

Kayla went to her first day of preschool today! She was sooo excited! The preschool is on a little farm with all kinds of animals for the kids to take care of. Kayla is so excited that there is a llama with her same name! Today they got to feed the pig named Pearl. I love the program they have at this school. Each of the children is given a little chore to do and they switch off feeding the different animals. There is a pony to ride, llamas, chickens, turkeys, pigs, goats, cows, swans and two dogs that follow the kids around and are just like little kids themselves. Kayla's teacher is so sweet. There are so many fun activities for the kids to do. They have mounds of books and Kayla's favorite, they have a little stage! There is a sledding hill for the winter, and a wonderful playground for the warmer days. I signed Kayla up for their van service that comes and picks her up in the morning and drops her off in the afternoon. It's wonderful because the school is about 20 minutes away and so I don't have to worry about driving her there. She came home exhausted, but very happy and couldn't wait to tell me everything she did. I missed her so much while she was gone. I cried as she drove away. She is my little buddy and I love spending time with her. Tessa and I are going to have to figure out what to do with ourselves while she is away. Tessa had a hard time with it too. She is Kayla's little shadow and so she became my shadow while Kayla was gone, but I'm not as fun as Kayla is.

5 Years ago today!

September 2nd 2005 was the best day of my life up to that point! The love of my life asked me to marry him! I'm so grateful for the last five years we have spent together. He is the best thing that has ever happened to me. He is the most patient, kind, lovable husband I could have ever wished for. Every year it gets better and I can't wait to see what the future brings.
We went to Brandon's family cabin about 1 1/2 hours away. Brandon's family came down too to join us. I had no idea what was going on. I thought we were just there to play. We started out by riding the four wheeler down to the lake.
There was a canoe waiting for us at the lake. Brandon said that it was his uncles and he always leaves it there. I still didn't suspect a thing. Brandon wanted us to row out to a small island in the middle of the lake because he wanted to show me something. I'm grateful I brought my camera along. I snapped pictures the whole time, not because I thought something was going on, but I just wanted to document our fun trip.
The island turned out being a pretty far row away. It took us about 45 min to get there. I wanted to turn back a few times because Brandon's sisters were waiting for us to get back so they could ride the four wheeler. I later found out that they just said that to throw me off.
Brandon and his best friends drove down to the cabin the night before and rowed out to the island to prepare for the next night. Brandon said that these four big boys in the canoe was a funny sight. The canoe was about to sink from all their weight.
When we got to the island Brandon blindfolded me. Finally at this point I knew what was happening. He led me a ways into the island and when he took of the blindfold this is what I saw! He had sprinkled rose petals all over the ground and he tried to light some candles, but it was too windy. There were two dozen roses on the table and a banana cream pie (my favorite!)
After I finished my pie this is what was written on my plate...
This was in the rose that held the ring.

I love my ring so much! It is so simple and elegant. He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! I said yes of course!
We went back to his cabin and my whole family was there along with Brandon's family. That was a wonderful surprise. I was on cloud nine!
When I got back to my house that night there were 4 more dozen roses waiting for me. I am the luckiest girl alive. He had planned out such a special night and everything went perfectly.

A Day at the Lake

Our favorite thing to do this summer has been to go swim and play at the lake on Saturdays. The weather gets to hot out here in Iowa that nothing feels better than swimming in a nice cool body of water. Kayla absolutely LOVES it. She is our little fish. Tessa likes it as long as I am the one that holds her. She is terrified of Brandon for some reason when we are at the lake. We don't understand why because I am rougher with her in the water than he is, but for some reason she doesn't trust him. It's kind of funny. We went with some friends yesterday and had a wonderful time. The men played some football and the girls sat in the sun and soaked up some sun. Ahhh, I love days when Brandon is off from school and we can play as a family.






This is just a bragging picture for me. I did two french braids on Kayla's hair the other day and it was my first time. She looked so cute and I was pretty proud of myself!

Utah Trip

Wow! My last post was about Tessa walking! That was so long ago that I can't even remember a time that she wasn't walking! We took a trip out to Utah to visit family last month while Brandon stayed in Iowa to study for his Boards. We had such a blast. Kayla loves to play with her aunt Abby and Tessa loves all the attention she gets.

My little brother, Jared graduated from high school. This is my whole family minus my brother Jason, he had to work.

My three handsome bro's!
My dad is such a stud! He is 50 years old and is competing in triathlons! He placed 5th in his age group and had the fastest biking time!


It is impossible to get these two girls to stop playing and pose for a picture. I have to do it when they are eating and this is what we end up with.

My beautiful sister Kristen turned 16 while I was there and had the boys literally lined up to take her out. She went on a date the night she turned 16, the night after that, and following night!

Grandma Egbert bought Kayla this adorable dress.
Grandpa took Kayla for a ride on the scooter.

Jared is a weirdo and Kayla LOVED it!
Kayla turned 3 years old on our trip. She LOVES princesses and so my mom gave her a princess Aurora dress for her birthday. She wore it every day!

Tessa is walking!

Last week I was sitting on the couch enjoying a book while the girls played on the floor. I looked up suddenly when I saw movement and Tessa was walking across the room! We had been trying for weeks to get her to walk and she was never interested. She liked to stand up by herself wherever she was, but when we tried to get her to take a step she would always just laugh and crawl away. I don't know how she did it but she taught herslef to walk. I don't know how to post videos so once I figure that out I will post if for the grandparents. She still prefers to crawl, but she can walk as well. I'm so excited! She and Kayla are already the best of friends and now it is just going to be more fun. They are going to love running around and playing together.

Spring is here!

Iowa winters are unlike anything else I have ever experienced. Growing up in Utah, when spring came I was happy; but when spring comes in Iowa I feel victorious. It's like I've conquered some sort of battle. Even if the temperature is only 40 degrees it feels like a sin to not be outside enjoying it. Here are a few pictures of what we have been up to the last few weeks.

This is Tessa and Kayla's new favorite game. Tessa is starting to walk so she likes to hold on to Kayla while she walks around the room. Kayla will fall down on purpose causing Tessa to fall as well which results in a lot of laughter.
We took a walk around our favorite park the other day. This is an example of us feeling like we needed to be outside even though it was still a little cold. The pond still had a lot of ice and Kayla is shivering in this picture.
I pulled out Kayla's old swimming suit for Tessa and bought Kayla a new one. I took the girls to an indoor pool with a friend and they had a blast. Kayla jumped right in, but Tessa took awhile to get comfortable. Eventually she enjoyed it.

Kayla is so silly.

Strike a pose!

My handsome husband! I was brave and cut his hair for the first time last week. I think I did pretty good. What do you think?

Last weeks was Spring Break for the students. Brandon studied for his Boards most of the week, but he did take a little time to spend with the family. We had a bonfire with some friends one of the nights and roasted marshmallows and hot dogs.