Surprise, Surprise!

In life there are happy surprises and not-so-happy surprises... we've had our fair share of both lately but the happy surprises are quite happy, so now that we are finally catching up with our own life, we thought we would share them!

In February we were SURPRISED to find out we are expecting another baby!

Babies are happy surprises :)

We figured out the due date would be somewhere in late September, possibly early October.

Due to many scheduling conflicts between my doctor and I, we weren't able to have our first appointment until I was about 15 weeks along... 

At that first appointment we were also surprised to find out that I was actually a month farther along than we thought and we are having another....

GIRL!

Quite the first appointment!

I had Tyler come and we brought the kids along so they were able to see their baby sister in the ultrasound. Parker was amazed and ecstatic. I wasn't sure how he would feel now that he is actually old enough to understand what was going on. He loved seeing her move on the ultrasound screen and afterward he carried the pictures around talking about how he has a baby sister in his mommy's tummy. Now the pictures are hanging on the fridge and he will still point to her and ask me if I love that baby in my tummy. I'll say "Yep, I love that baby, just like I love you!" and he'll say "I love her too!"

He is already such a a great big brother to Rylan. These two little girls are very lucky to have him around.

I don't think my little Ry Pie knows what she has coming in a  few short months. She will not be the only little princess around the Pooley home! Right now she loves to point out babies, give my belly kisses and and play with her own baby dolls. I am very excited for her to have a sister because my sister is my best friend!

So my new due date is August 29... just 10 days after Rylan's 2nd Birthday. This may be the only time I hope that my baby will be late! I want there to be as much time in between the girl's birthdays as possible because I have a feeling they are going to have to share a lot of things in life!

And that is it for now. Hopefully we'll have more happy surprises ahead!

Here are some Easter pictures, just for fun!

In other news, my best friend and sister is getting married! I am so excited for her. Her fiancé Eric seems to fit into our family very well and I'm excited for them to experience all of the wonderful blessings of an eternal and happy marriage.

Aren't they cute?

Happy April

Wow, what has happened to the last few months? I wish I had some great excuse for why I haven't had any time to blog, but really I don't. Life is just busy. Here are some of the events that have taken place:

1. We went to Rexburg the beginning of March to welcome home Tyler's brother Jay from his mission in Brazil! It was very fun to see him and hear about the two years he spent teaching the Gospel in Brazil! Tyler is happy to have his brother back and Parker enjoyed getting to know his uncle again. Rylan wasn't so sure about Jay, but I'm sure she'll warm up to him soon.

2. Tyler went to Portland for almost two weeks for an appraisa

l class. We missed him SO much! The kids and I spent the two weeks with the stomach flu and pink eye :( So we were quite relieved to see Tyler walk through that door! In addition to his class, Tyler ran his first 5K up in Seattle with his brother and sister. I was so proud of him to be motivated enough to go for it. And they all did great!

3. Tyler and I had our 5 year anniversary!! I can't believe it has been five years. It has gone by so quickly yet I can't seem to remember life before him. We unfortunately did not get to do much celebrating because poor Tyler caught that awful stomach flu as soon as he got home from Portland. I will write more about our 5 years together once we actually get to celebrate!

4. I left Tyler and the kids alone for a whole wee

kend for the very first time! I think we were all a little nervous but Tyler and the kids survived the whole weekend while I went down to Salt Lake with my mom to visit my sister and go to conference. It was a fun trip and it sounds like the kids had so much fun with dad, they hardly even missed me.

So that's all for now... I do plan on posting more often, and hopefully with some exciting things to read about. For now, here are some pictures:

Welcome home Jay!

Ready to Ruuuun!

My kiddos on Valentine's day.

My Funny Valentine

Love.

Resolutions:

So happened to find the list of New Year Resolutions I made for last year.

Here's how they went:

1. Read Scriptures and pray, both individually and with family, every day!

- Well I was probably at about 50% when I made that goal and I'd say I've improved to about 70%. So I guess this one better stay on my list 'til I get to 100%!

2. Learn about and understand the Atonement better.

-I'd say that is a life long assignment. I did read a great book on the Atonement in January... then I didn't do much else.

3. Read at least one book a month.

- Totally failed this one. I think I got to recreationally read 3 books all year! How sad. I'll be attempting this one again!

4. Potty Train Parker by February 1st!

-I think it took until about March 1st but we were successful!!

5. Spend one hour a day doing a fun, educational activity with the kids.

-If I could, I would spend 5 hours a day doing fun stuff with my kids. Some days I spent 3, others I spent 1, and some days I had to make up for the previous days I got nothing done because I spent all day playing with the kids. I'd say all those days probably evened out to an hour or so a day.

6. Lose 20 lbs.

-I lost 16 lbs... does that count?

I thought if I posted my resolutions on here this year, I would be held accountable to them.

So in addition to my failed attempts at the above resolutions... here are my 2012 Resolutions:

1. Prepare for and fast every fast Sunday.

- Sometimes I fast with out a purpose because I forgot it was fast sunday until the night before :(

2. Spend the entire week preparing, reading, praying about, and pondering about the lessons I give in Relief Society!

-Got a new calling and I'm feeling really nervous and inadequate!

3. SUCCESSFULLY budget and manage all our finances!

-We are still trying to find a system that works with Tyler's crazy pay periods.

4. Be featured on the show Extreme Couponing!

-ok not really but I would like to get back into coupons and save us a little more money!

5. Master the art of photography and photo editing.

-Mastering is definitely an over-reach but I would like to continue playing around with it until I get better.

6. Physically write in a journal.

-I use this blog as a journal but as you can see I am really bad at keeping up with it so I want to have a more personal account of my life!

7. Lose at least 11 more lbs.

-ugggg.....

With that said.... Anyone have any good books to recommend? Good luck to each of you on your resolutions.

And HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Photo Shoot

Christmas Eve we tried to take some family pictures. My mom took about 30 pictures of us and there was not a SINGLE picture where both kids were looking at the camera and smiling. It was kind of disappointing considering how many of them were so cute but just not so cute of all of us. Here are a few:

My Christmas Gift to You!

Merry Christmas!

Can you believe it's almost here?

Here is a gift we can each enjoy on this beautiful holiday!

Also... I braved another sewing project. I'm starting to wonder how many projects it takes for a person of average sewing talent to be able to sew in nice, strait, neat lines... If it's less then 6 or so, I may be a person of less-than-average sewing talent. Anyway, here are the results:

Pooley Family Stockings

Rylan's :

Parker's:

Tyler's:

Mommy's: mine was the guinea pig of the bunch, which is why it's kinda goofy looking. You're right they are all a little goofy looking, but this is the goofiest. It is also the largest... I think that means I deserve extra presents because of all my hard work on these beauties!

Rylan and I got an extra girly touch of rosettes on the top. Still looking for something fun to add to the top of the boys.

Enjoy your holidays! It really is the most wonderful time of the year!

The Coat

Last night we watched a very touching video on the true meaning of Christmas. It is called

The Coat

It is such a sweet video. Parker asked to watch it 3 times... and all three times I cried!

A few minutes later, Rylan fell and bit her tongue :( She was so sad. Parker ran into the other room, I didn't think much of it until he came back with Rylan's favorite stuffed animal, handed it to her and comforted her. It melted my heart. Then he ran off and came back with HIS favorite stuffed animal (the one he is very possessive over) and gave it to her as well. Isn't it amazing that the Spirit of Christmas can catch so quickly? He is normally a very sweet boy but I think he was extra-inspired!

I hope I can be just as inspired!

Traditions.....

Last year, during the holiday season, I was a little out of sync. We had moved a few times and by the time December rolled around we were staying in Tyler's grandma's house while she was in Arizona for the winter and we were in between houses. I am very grateful for her generosity! But it was a little bit difficult for me to get into the Christmas spirit when I was living in a home that wasn't mine. I could not spend my days decorating, baking and blasting Christmas music to dance and sing to all day. But I did learn something... While all those activities are fun and make wonderful memories, Christ's birth and the blessings of the atonement and

our families are really what make Christmas special.

This year, I have my own place to decorate, bake in, and embarrass myself with some serious holiday tunes... and don't you worry I will be taking full advantage of that! But I wanted to make sure Christ was central in my family's celebrations this year so I have come up with my very first Pooley Family Tradition. We have lots of great traditions with each sides of our family but this will be the first one that is unique to just Tyler, the kids, and I. So I am excited!

I call it the Nativity Advent.

I bought a cute little 10 piece Nativity set. Then I found 25 Christmas messages consisting of scriptures, talks from the Friend magazine, url's for christmas videos on LDS.org, and explanations of what each christmas symbol represents. I plan to wrap each of the 10 pieces of the nativity set individually with a little message and a piece of candy for each of us. Then I will wrap the remaining messages with some candy as well. The baby Jesus figurine will be wrapped in a different paper than the rest of the gifts. After we set up our tree tonight, all of the gifts will go under the tree and they will be the ONLY presents we put there. Each day the kids will get to pick one gift to open. We will read the message, talk about the role of the figurine (if they picked a gift with one of the 10 figurines) and enjoy the candy. Then we will set up the nativity display piece by piece. Christmas morning (we will probably be at my parents so we'll have to bring Him with us) we will open the last gift, which will be baby Jesus, before we open any other gifts and read the Christmas story from Luke chapter 2.

I want my kids to remember while all the toys and presents and santa are so very fun... Christ is the most wonderful of all gifts.

So I am looking for other fun traditions to start with my family too. You guys have any good ones? Please share!!