Where does the time go??

Where does the time go? Monet is growing up so fast! I wanted to do an update on her and our family in general... Below is a picture of Monet when she was 3, and now she is 4 1/2! She has really changed in the last year and a half!!!

Monet has really developed a lot in the past year. She has finally outgrown the terrible 2's stage!!! She has always been our passionate little firecracker, and I do not see that changing anytime soon! Here are some things that are important about Monet right now!

~She can write her own name

~She can copy words in her own writing

~She LOVES art of any kind!!!

~She is becoming quite good at drawing pictures including people

~She is learning how to spell

~She enjoys reading

~Can count to 20, but is stubborn about it, and says she likes to try new ways to count! haha

~She loves to sing and dance (we often have performances we get to watch!)

Monet is also quite good at many physical activities which is often scary! Things she has mastered:

~Playing catch

~Hopping on one foot

~ Somersaults

~Head stands

~Hand stands are still progressing

~She climbs anything and EVERYTHING!!!

~Galloping

~Skipping

~Ducking during dodgeball (Thanks Daddy)

Our kids are growing up so fast!!! I know that time will continue to fly by especially with the addition of another little one this July! I am now 17 weeks pregnant, and feeling pretty good! I m still nauseous quite a bit, but other than that I feel great! The baby is about the size of a banana right now, and is moving like crazy! I am looking forward to the large movements that the kids will be able to feel!

Monet and Pax play together so well, and just love each other to pieces! They are so excited about the new baby!

Pax update!!

Somehow, the past three years have gone by in a flash!! It seems like just the other day Pax was born, and now he is 3 years old!!! I remember so clearly carrying him around in the Baby Bjorn... and now he is longer than my body!!!

People always say that the time flies by so fast when your kids are little!! Now, I am really getting to see what they mean by that! Here is a little recap of Paxton's first three years! :)

Paxton Stephen Gerhardt (middle name my Dad's name) was born on February 15, 2008 at 11:45 pm. He was 8 pounds 1 ounce and 2o 3/4 inches long. Paxton would quickly steal mommy's heart! He was a snuggly little baby and did not cry much at all!!

Here is a picture of Paxton just hours after his birth!

The first year of his life was a busy one! We moved houses, Monet would turn 2, Daddy would lose his job and go back to school, Mommy would also go back to school that year as well. He grew up in a flash, and remained our cuddly and super easy baby! Pax was always smiling, and such a good sleeper! He loved his crib soo much!

This is a picture of Paxton at age 1!

The next year of Paxton's life would include another move, and changing of lifestyle as Mommy would go back to a traditional University and Monet and Pax would go to daycare. It was a pretty hard adjustment for all of us, but we adapted well. At this point, Paxton's personality really began to show! He still remained a happy and sweet little guy! However we would notice that his personality was much different from his sister's! He is a shy guy, that is often slow to warm to new people and situations. He would get tubes in his ears at 18 months, which would help his language to begin to develop much more rapidly!

Paxton had just turned 2 in this picture!

This last year has been busy as well!! Paxton joined Monet at school on the campus where I attend school. Paxton has really come out of his shell this past year, and has begun to talk soooo much!

Here is a picture of 3 year-old Pax! :)

Now I will update you on what Pax is into now!

He is a little lover! Some of the things that he loves!

~His family

~His friends

~The color orange

~Playing sports

~CANDY :(

~Going to Grammy's house

~Spiderman, Toy Story, and Cars

~He recently has begun to enjoy coloring and making crafts

~Cuddling with Mommy and Daddy

One of my favorite things about Pax is all of the funny things that he says and the cute ways he pronounces things:

~"Morange" = orange

~"Mingers" = fingers

~"Manwich" = sandwich

~"Mandurger" = hamburger

~"Queen Car" = lightning mcqueen

~"Loody" = Woody

There are a lot more too, but those are some of my favorites! :)

Paxton is such a sweet little guy with a very sensitive heart. He is learning so much! Things that he knows/does now:

~Speaks in full sentences and carries on conversations

~Hops on one foot

~Gallops

~Does somersaults

~Shoots baskets (and makes them!)

~Can hit a baseball with a bat

~Rides a tricycle

~Knows how to count to 12

~Recognizes many of his letters

~Knows all of his shapes and how many sides they have

Our little man is growing up so quickly! We just love him to pieces!!!!

Valentine's Day!!

I have had the same Valentine now for 7 years!! Scott and I have been married for 5 years, and together for 7! We have gone through some rough times in the first five years. There were times when one or the other of us seemed to have lost our faith in God, and in the commitment we made to each other. Luckily for us, we have a God that carries us through the rough times, if we let him! Marriage is not an easy thing, it take hard work and lots of prayer! I am happy to say that we have come out stronger than before, more in love and committed than ever!! :)

This year on Valentine's day, I wanted to try to make it a special day for the kids as well, even though we all had to go to a full day of school. Here is a picture of my two little Valentines! :)
I packed them a Valentine lunch with things that we heart-shaped! Maybe a little corny, but it was fun, and they really enjoyed it!

These are hot dogs cut on the diagonal to make a heart with a spaghetti noodle through them and pieces of cheese on the ends.
They also had chocolate-covered strawberries and a heart-shaped pb&j (not-pictured)

Scott is generally not a big fan of Valentine's day.... But, I decided that I wanted to surprise him with a little something for just the two of us anyways. I told him that he needed to be home after the kids were in bed because I had a surprise for him! :)
The first thing that I did was prepare a candlelit dinner for just the two of us. We had roast with potatoes, carrots, onions and garlic; rolls; a yummy feta, pear salad, and sparkling cider. For after dinner I had prepared some dessert for us, and a bed on the floor where we could relax, cuddle, nibble on goodies, and just talk!! :)
We had a really nice time. It was fun to have a little "home date", and the kids didn't even wake up!! Woohoo!!!

Missing my Daddy!!!

On February 11, 2006, I received a phone call at about 1:00 in the morning. The call was to tell me that my Dad had a massive heart attack in his sleep, and had died. The news seemed so unreal, and I remember immediately feeling sick, and screaming the word no! I was about 3 months pregnant with our first child, and had been married for 5 months. One of my first questions was, where is mom?? I had to go wake up Scott to tell him the news, and then rush to the bathroom where I began vomiting uncontrollably. The hour and a half drive to my parents house was the longest in my life! I was completely devastated and in disbelief at the same time. My dad was a wonderful man, with a huge soft spot for my mom and his three girls. I was the baby of the family and a total Daddy's girl.

This year marks the the 5th anniversary of Dad's death. It is hard to believe that he has been gone for that long!!! I miss him terribly, and not a day goes by that I do not think about how much fun he would have with my kids! My dad LOVED babies!! Jada, my niece, was only 4 months old when dad died, but he just couldn't get enough of her! He loved to sing "monster mash" to her!! :) I was lucky enough to have my dad at my wedding to Scott in September of 2005. He walked me down the aisle! We had so much fun that day! Dad always had a way of making me smile, and laugh!!! Here are some picture from my wedding where my Dad made me smile!

Practicing walking me down the aisle at the rehearsal:

Dancing at the reception: This was sooo fun!!! He was really nervous, but he was awesome!! I remember he asked me afterwards, "How did I do??" and I told him, "It was perfect, Dad!!"

Here he was biting a string off of my dress because we couldn't find any scissors!! haha

My dad was the best! Although I miss him terribly, I am so very thankful for all of the memories that I do have with my Daddy!!! Do me a favor, and hug your dad today! If you can't hug him, then give him a call and tell him how special he is! Life is just too short not to take advantage of every opportunity we have to tell those we love how special they are to us!

Pax's 3rd Birthday Party!

We had Pax's 3rd Birthday party yesterday!! It was a lot of fun! It was a spiderman theme, and was held at Pietro's Pizza!

We had pizza, a spiderman cake, played arcade games and had a blast with our friends and family. Pax and Monet won over 700 tickets and got some pretty cool prizes too! Paxton said that the party was super fun!

We had so much fun playing all of the games there. It was a really low-stress party for me too, which was super nice!

We invited family and friends to the party and had a nice little group. The people that came were: Mommy, Daddy, Monet, Grammy, Aunt Nell & Uncle Julius, Uncle Luke & Aunt Lindsee, Jessica with Zachary and Sophia, Aimee with Chance and Zane & Gma Michelle.

He got lots of fun toys and clothes! Thank you everyone for helping us celebrate Paxton!!!

A few Family pictures! :)

Pax had to try out his new toys when we got home! The party was a huge success because Pax loved it!!! That is what I was aiming for, so I couldn't be happier! :)

Updates and reminders

Well, I have not posted anything in a while... I am now 15 weeks pregnant with baby #3! I had an OB appointment this last week, and I really was happy to be able to hear the baby's heart beat! I even recorded it on my phone so that I could have Scott and the kids listen to it later. The kids have asked me many time since if they can listen to the baby on my phone. :) They are both really excited to have a new baby brother or sister. I am going to try to schedule my 20 week ultrasound this next week. I am going to request a specific day because I know that Scott will be able to go with me that day. I am also hoping that they are going to allow the kids to go in with us! I know that they would love to see their brother or sister in my belly! Here are a few belly pictures... Yes, I am aware that I look bigger than 15 weeks! Oh well, we are all different! I love my baby belly!!!

Monet went to work with me yesterday for 8 hours! She was super good helper, and didn't complain the whole time that we were there! I am so lucky that I have a job that I can take my kids to if I am just working on office stuff. When we were done working, we went to the store to buy Paxton his birthday present! we bought him a basketball hoop! He loves basketball, so I am really excited to give it to him! I cannot believe that Pax is going to be 3 in 9 days!!! I can remember so clearly the day that I gave birth to him! He was a sweet cuddly baby from the start, and now he is a sweet cuddly toddler. I love him so much!

Baby number 3!

These past few weeks have been sort of crazy! We found out that we are pregnant with baby number three!! I am 8 weeks along now and due July 31st. I had a little scare about a week and a half ago, but everything is ok now!!! I had my first ultrasound and was able to see the little pulsating peanut in my belly. Monet and Paxton are so excited to have a baby brother or sister. Although, both of them are saying that they think there is a boy and a girl in my tummy. Haha. I am not feeling too bad right now. I have been having some nausea, but really not that bad. I have been super tired, but am so happy that I have been cleared to do some light exercise!

I am on winter break right now. I get to see my grades from Fall term tonight after 5:00 pm, so I am kind of anxious for that. I am hoping for straight A's!!! Winter term will start in about two weeks on January 3rd. I am looking forward to taking a yoga class and stress management class! I will taking a quantitative statistical methods class and first aid class as well. It should be interesting to be going to school, working more hours, taking care of the family and house, and being pregnant! It kind of makes me feel tired just thinking about it. Haha. I know that I will get it done! Although, I really am wishing that I had a housekeeper for at least once a month!!! That would be so awesome, but so not gonna happen. Haha.

Today I am making a wedding cake with my baking partner Stephanie Gooding. It is our first paid job, so we are pretty excited. I will be delievering and setting it up tomorrow up in north portland. Then, we have another one to make in march and I will also be singing at that wedding. Needless to say, I am keeping very busy with my baking and crafting hobbies as well as school, work and family. Loving life and trying to soak up each and every minute that we get to spend as a family. Has seemed like Scott and I are going different directions a lot of the time, each spending time with the kids when the other one is busy with other duties outside of the house! We are both looking forward to spending more family time together next week and in the decades to come. We are also hoping to have a date night on Sunday so that we can go listen to some Jazz music and have yummy food and drinks. Thanks to my mom for always being willing to watch our kiddos!!! It is precious to see how much all of them enjoy time together! My mom loves her grandkids so much, and that love is definitely returned!!!

Back to the pregnancy... I am very curious if the baby is going to be a girl or a boy... I am kind of hoping for a boy since my sister has a baby boy and my sister-in-law is pregnant right now with a boy. However, I will obviously be excited either way! I remember people telling me that I would show a lot faster with the second one, but was not quite prepared for the earliness that I would show with the third! I typically show early due to my tilted uterus, but at 7 weeks?!?! Kinda spooky! haha My friends that are also pregnant right now with their third or have already had a thrid reassure me that it is because it is the third baby. :) Below is a picture of my little bump. I will try to update as I go along... but we will see. ;)

Love to all this holiday season! This has always been my favorite time of the year, but has only gotten better with my kiddos around. This year they are so much more invloved and excited! I am hoping to go look at Christmas lights next week and maybe go to zoo lights as well!! Happy Birthday to Christ the risen Lord!!!!