Jack n' Jill & a whole lotta fun!

Doesn't this look DIVINE? I made chocolate zucchini cake with zucchini from my garden! We got so many it was fun to come up with new recipes! 

                                    
                                                    HALLOWEEN party #1 @ the Bairds

 This is Jason's parents having a party with the grandkids! They had a great time playing games, making crafts, and eating donuts! They love being together. We are SO lucky to live by our cousins and grandparents! 

PARTY #2 -My mom is so DARN CREATIVE! She made this playhouse for the kids to perform halloween plays for us.  So cute! They had a great time.

Did I mention my mom was creative??? Yes, this cake was for my brother Mike cause we celebrated his belated birthday on halloween night!  We have a tradition in our family where we all get together on halloween and make soups and then go out and trick or treat. The kids love getting together!!

The 'JACK and JILL' of all jack and jills! They are SOOO cute together. Carrie's little boy JACK and Grace are about 6 months apart and are trouble together! :-) We thought this costume idea was PERFECT for the pair of them! IT was!! 

Okay.. and the CUTEST Dorthy ever... i must say! She had it all, but the long braided hair :-) Maybe one day I'll have her be Annie, or shirley Temple. 

Baths at our house are always exciting! They dig for treasures, swim underwater, and pretend they are mermaids... and sometimes get along and have fun :-)

Any time of day you come to my house... this is the ATTIRE for the day! Full on princess dress-ups. They change about 6 times a day though too.  Sound and look familiar to anyone else?

Yep... that's how we roll! 

Here they are just sittin' on the driveway playing princess together.  Awaiting their  'prince' (Jason) to come home from work! 

The 'whole family' pictures!

 WOW... it's been awhile since I blogged! Now I have to play catch up over the last few months.  Well, this was a fun highlight for sure! Joel and Bonnie came back from Virginia to visit us and it was A BLAST having them here! We had to snag a few family pics with the whole family together.  Although in JAnuary, it will change ... again.  I guess this means we will need to update family pics yearly! It's already such a struggle to get everyone together and coordinated! GLAD they are DONE!

The whole Andrews Clan-

This was my personal favorite! I just love my siblings! We have 

fun when we're together! 

My cute little Jade! She looked like an indian at the end of summer.

And my sweetheart... wish we hadn't taken family pics when i was preggo.. but oh well. that's life.

Jade and Gracie 

Family picture- 

My cute parents. awww. 

My Gracie- poor girl, she got my lips... 

ULTRASOUND RESULTS!!

So I just logged on to my blog and realized it's been FOREVER since my last post... and well, I've know this exciting news for about 3 weeks now!! GEEZ, I'm almost 6 months!  I'd thought I'd share the exciting news! We're HAVING A...


cute little ...

adorable...

happy....

BOY! Yes, it was true! I had to ask her about three times to check and be sure, but there were no mistakes about that! He had his legs spread wide open!  I looked at Jade and said, 'Jade, it's a boy'! She looked at me kinda funny like 'duh, mom... that's what I've been saying'! She was not surprised at all.  Jason is super happy and we are ready to welcome a new baby boy to our family! I hope he will add some testosterone to the mix and be ready to play soccer cause Jason is anxiously awaiting :)  

We're Expecting...

... ANOTHER BABY the end of JANUARY! 


I know. I mentioned it in the other post, but it deserves a post of it's own! :-) We are very excited. Jade and Grace pray at each prayer for the baby that it will 'gow healfy' (in Grace's language). We will find out the gender sometime the end of August. I am about 14 weeks along right now.  I have felt fairly good... it goes off and on. I am a lot more tired though! Working out is much, much harder and takes a lot of effort. I just get exhausted by the end of the day! I'm glad I have such a great husband who takes care of me.  Here's to a better 2nd trimester! Yipee! Bring it on!

JULY fun!

It's not a surprise that i LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the 4th of July! It's like one of my favorite holidays of the year!! I love the time of year, the barbeques, the flags everywhere, people saying the pledge of alliance at every event, the songs, the togetherness i feel with other Americans, and I love how they DO IT IN PROVO!! The patriotic service was absolutely FANTASTIC! I love it.  I look forward to it every year. Then the Stadium of Fire was amazing with Carrie Underwood... and then the FABULOUS PARADE! It means a lot to me.  I love America. I love all the serviceman and woman who currently serve our county and those who have.  Such a blessing to live here!!

So this has been a tradition of ours for YEARS now to run the Freedom Run! It also has a special place in my heart because Jason did it for the first time one YEAR after his cancer treatments and ran a 5k! I was so proud of him because of all the struggles he had to go through and to see him running again healthy and happy... so glad!! LOVE that guy!! So here we are with TWO kiddos and one on the way (3 months along) running again together! :-)

My little Gracie modeling her patriotic attire!! 

weird picture of JAde... but she was being silly and wouldn't let me get a good one of her! She and Grace were TWINS in their little outfits! They LOVE the parade too!

Grace chillin' on Jason... she was a little (ok a LOT) afraid of all loud noises, which was pretty much the whole parade! 

So this is where she ended up sitting... hoping to get farther away from the loud noises! Grandma Jo's lap! :-)

...And the way home from the parade... they CRASHED. 

6:15 AM was WAY too early for those girls! Being pushed in the stroller... exhausting!

.... And Grace... Crashed. Fully decked out still... what a woman!

OUR FIRST GARDEN!!!! Yes, we planted our garden this year and we are very excited! Looks nice huh? Well.... take a look at the next picture....

I don't know how farmers do it!?!? It was so much work getting it ready.  We had to pull out trees, roots, TONS of grass, weeds, leaves, rocks! Lots of work! But hopefully we will reap the REWARDS! 

Thanks to my Dad for coming and teaching us how to plant... we're set! sort of...

The girls with their shovels... destroying (i mean helping) to plant too! We planted BEANS, ZUCCHINI, BELL PEPPERS, TOMATOES, CHERRY TOMATOES, CucumbERS, Carrots, and red onions! Plus some cilantro and basil! Hopefully we'll get something from it!! :-)

AND JULY 8th... GRACE TURNED "2"

Did I mention this was how i found the birthday girl when I came upstairs from unloading the dryer? A WHOLE TWO minutes i was gone and this is what she did... found my black mac makeup and brush and decorated herself 'so prewtty'.  Oh, how could i get mad? I had to get my camera! crazy girl!

What a cutie! I can't believe she's only two! She acts so much older and she's so dang smart that it seems like she should be four! She keeps me on my toes and I am SO blessed to her mommy.  I love her spunk and her personality and flare! She has a love of life and people and it's so contagious to be around her! She absolutely LOVES Jade and follows her everywhere! Oh, LOVE that sweet girl! 

It was a LAST min. birthday party.  We just invited the grandparents and the Baird side of the family, cause my mom was out of town and we'll do an 'Andrews one' later... BUT most couldn't come, I made all this food and texted my sister about an hour before and said... COME over... i have so much food. It worked out. Here she is saying THANKS for her cute present! 

Grace with her  new bubble mower.  (don't waste 20$ ladies, it doesn't work very well) :-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRACE ELIZABETH! 

ZIONS! Baird style..

                                    We went on our first camping trip of the summer over Memorial day and I am JUST now getting around to posting pics!! We went with Jason's family, Scott, Lisa, Emily, Ron, Nick and Carrie.  IT was a blast, as always, and the hikes were gorgeous! Jade even got out and hiked for about 2 miles! We got to train her!

Group photo of the hiking crew! End of MAY at Zions is the perfect time to camp. After that it's SUPER hot and miserable.  I know, cause i've camped during July! agggh... learned our lesson!

Jade found a cave she was a little obsessed with.  So I hiked up with her to the cave opening and took a picture of her right next to it! Caves are a little creeeeepy.

Jade's favorite spot is on Grandpa Scott's lap listening to him tell her story after story.... she LOVES it! 

Ok is this not the most precious picture? Scott with all the little grandkids (that can walk) going to take them on a stroll around the campground... hunting for squirrels I believe. SOOO CUTE!

Jack and Gracie are like the little dynamic duo! Planning their next scheme. They are soooo funny together. Gracie is the mischievious one and Jack just follows whatever she does.  You gotta keep an eye on those two! :-)

ummmm... Grandpa Scott always makes camping SO great! When we got there, our tent was all set up, camp was all set up.  Cool water in the jugs and snacks to eat... Not to mention when dinner time rolls around funeral potatoes in the dutch oven!!! Seriously, he's the best to camp with! If camps were hotels, our camp was for SURE a 5 star Marriott resort!

somethin' to blog about!

It seems like forever! Here's what has been happening around our neck of the woods:


*JASON got a NEW JOB!! Yea! After he graduated with his masters he has been looking around and actually found a FANTASTIC job in Salt Lake City.  So we don't have to move (at least for awhile until I hate the commuting thing). We feel SO blessed and are VERY excited about it.  It's with CHG Healthcare, and they are actually ranked 26 on the FORBES 100 BEST companies to work for.  SO, horrrrrraaaay! 


*Jade had her FOURTH birthday!! I have to say Jade is my little best friend.  She follows me everywhere and has since she was little.  No matter what fun toys are around or what interesting things there are to do, Jade will follow me around the house in and out of rooms, talking, laughing, asking me questions, and even helping clean.  She loves her little sister and is the BEST older sister to Gracie.  She protects her and watches out for her (which sometimes is a full time job).  There are always TWO mommies when Jade's around. I love Jade's sweet innocence, and sensitivity and her ability to notice whatever moods I am in and be so keen and intune.  She has been like that since she was little baby.  I feel a deep connection with her little spirit and am SO grateful I can be her mommy. I will miss her dearly when school starts and i will cry... a lot. Here are some pictures of the PRINCESS PARTY!!! ONE spoiled girl i tell ya... 

Hear YE.... hear ye.... this the princess going out on a DATE with her Daddy for lunch!

Grace had to sneak in there too... although she stayed home with me and had a nice nap

Jade had her cute little sunbeam friends over.  They got pampered! I am in charge of Activity days so I invited those girls to come dressed up and paint the little girls nails, and do their makeup.  They had a ball!

These are the girls dancing to the princess music! 

Grace loved the cupcake ice cream cones. Can't ya tell?

My mom made Jade this cute skirt, and Carrie made her the matching doll! Adorable huh?

AND YES, this was in my backyard! Jason's parents own some inflatables and they promised to bring it for her birthday! IT WAS THE VERY BEST PRESENT! She LOVED IT!!! SO did all the kids... 

AND SO DID the BOYS.  They had a race and it pretty much wiped them out!

Grandma Jo, Carrie, Jack and Gracie had a blast too! 

Ok, I even dressed up for the occasion! That's how much i love my little Jade :) 

OTHER RANDOMNESS

So the girls were suppose to be getting their clothes on... but instead i see THIS! oh, i howi love moments like these that make you LOVE staying home and being a mommy to witness such cute acts of childhood.

Oh wow. This was taken just a few weeks before the party and she already looks older! Stop growing would ya? 

AND mother's DAY- spent with my favorite mothers- my Mom and wonderful sisters! And we even saw Jason's Mom too! What a great celebration!