A baby!!!

Turns out life never gets any slower or less busy.  I am a wife, soon to be mother, and nanny and who woulda guessed that I would be busy?!  :)  Anyways, sorry for the lack of posting more frequently.

Our little one is due August 4th and we are both so excited. Only 6 weeks until we find out if its a boy or girl. :)  Im really looking forward to feeling him/her move. I do have a bit of morning sickness, but its only once or twice a week and usually only in the mornings or late evenings. No real strong cravings yet (did have a craving for sweet potato fries and I was fine after I got them once).  I like fruits and veggies just about any time they are present. Meat is still not a favorite, but I eat it and can enjoy it - especially fish and chicken. My belly is getting bigger each week and I will soon be wearing only my larger or JJ's t shirts. I only have two pair of pants that fit and only elastic waisted skirts fit. I will probably have to go shopping soon for some dressier shits for church.  Exciting stuff!

 JJ and I are planning a trip to Maine so I can meet the rest of his family this summer. We are pretty excited for the opportunity to be able to go, but the car ride getting there isn't sounding like much fun to either of us..imagine that. :)  We will be able to spend almost 2 weeks with family and friends there and getting to tour the beautiful state of Maine.

Other than that, nothing else is really new. JJ works full time at PDI and I nanny full time. I also spend a lot of time clipping coupons and searching for the best deals at stores. I usually spend 3 mornings a week shopping for those great deals. I love it! I have already been able to score 4 packages of diapers and wipes, some baby shampoo and lotion, and a couple pacifiers for half the retail price..or less.

IM MARRIED!!!!!!!!!!

So the long awaited day finally arrived (about 2 weeks ago lol).  Im now a happily married woman and still just as busy  =(  Maybe someday when we get internet at our place I will be able to keep on top of this thing (wishful thinking, I know).   Here are a few pictures of our day. =)

Sorry for the sideways ones, I can't figure out how to rotate them =)  Although it was supposed to be a rainy Saturday, we were able to get many of the outdoor pictures we wanted and ride off on the bike =) Such a fun day and its so hard to believe its over with..while at the same time, it seems like it was much longer than 2 weeks ago =)  As you can tell, Im still full of smiles =) see?   lol   Back to the craziness...  

Best Friends (sometimes) =)

Ok, so I just had to post these pictures =)  Each week day except for Wednesday (because Ashlee doesn't have school on Wednesdays) the boys and I hang out at my apartment from around 11:40-1:50 while Ashlee is in school. (Just doesn't make much sense to me to drive across town any more than I really have to.)  Keagyn used to sleep the whole time, but now that Ty is with us and doesn't have the same nap schedule, he keeps himself awake...which can be very trying because he is cranky or it can be totally hilarious because he is just so goofy. Anyways, before I even pull into the parking lot at the apartment, Ty is already telling me "Wanna get out" =)  They each hold one of my hands and we walk up to the door. Once its unlocked and opened, they race up the stairs. Cutest thing ever =)

They (ok, mostly Ty) also have this fascination with the magnets on the fridge, only problem is, most of the magnets are pictures or random things holding up important papers (like coupons!). So I did what any great aunt/babysitter would do and bought them a whole bag of letter/number magnets. Boy were they excited to have a whole bag of things to put on and take off the fridge! Its been 7 minutes and they are still at it!

(sorry about the fuzzy pictures, they are just too busy moving to pose for them!)

Cute kids!! (nothing new about that!)

It has been far too long since I have posted anything about these kids so here you go =)

Ty still loves to put on anyone and everyones socks and shoes. He is really good at walking around in them too and you just never know what he will be wearing the next time you see him 

(even if it is only a minute later)   =)

Keagyn loves being outside to play and is often trying to escape. He does still have a few problems like this with the door just tries to eat him which calls for screaming at the top of your lungs like a dinosaur is about to eat you! He is so silly and I love it!

Today the boys and I had to run to Walmart for a couple things, but when we got there, of course Keagyn was fast asleep. I carried Keagyn inside and Ty walked in (holding onto my hand of course). I got Ty into the shopping cart and then tried to just push the cart one-handed while holding the sleeping Keagyn. I quickly gave up on that and asked Ty if he wanted to hold Keagyn. Boy did he get the biggest smile on his face as he quietly said "I hold Keagyn?!"  He did a fantastic job of holding him while he slept! 

Of course, Keagyn woke up a little bit and wanted to look around to see where he was, but Ty thought he needed to sleep more and pushed him back down (thus the reason for the jacket between his head and the cart). Ty held him until we were just about done and the cart was getting full ("Take him, Bira. I squished!")  and by then Keags was ready to be awake =)  (Oh and side note, but Dahls has AE chocolate milk on sale this week for $1.99 and walmart will price match if you have a Dahls ad to prove it)

And then there is this little girl who is 5 going on 10 =)  Monday was just me and her all day long. Of course, I took advantage of the time to work on wedding stuff and she wanted so badly to help me with it all.  Together we were able to get this whole stack of invitations stuffed in the envelopes, sealed, and stamped!  She really did do a fantastic job. I don't know what I am going to do without her when she goes to school next year. She is my big helper all day long and the boys will go crazy (and drive me crazy!) with out her!

And it looks like that is about all I have for tonight. =) Hope you enjoyed it! (of course, being there in person is soooo much better! tag along with us some day and find out for yourself haha)

Wedding planning full speed ahead!

And the craziness has begun! JJ and I have been working on planning out the details for our upcoming May wedding and boy is it work! Things have started to come together though and its so exciting!!  Only 121 days until I marry my best friend <3 nbsp="" p="">
Last week was the beginning of JJ's last semester at school. Thankfully he has a light load this last semester so I still get to see him lots when we aren't working. I started a new job back in November so now I work my normal job with the kids 7:30-5 daily and then the new job 7:45-10 M, Th, F and 3:30-5 Sunday. It was neat how it worked out so that the hours that I work this new job is the same times that JJ is at his work. Its so exhausting though!  We started a new Ladies Bible Study at our church in West DesMoines and it has been so encouraging to go and spend time together learning and sharing. Time spent in God's Word before work each day has been very uplifting..and challenging.  For example, the Bible study group is going through the book of James. For a few reasons, we decided to postpone the actual study through the first 18 verses of James to the next week which meant that I studied it at home for two weeks in a row. No biggie; there is always something new to learn! The second week of studying about trials in the Christian life, I was involved in a car accident (had the oldest and youngest kids with me; everyone is totally fine) and had the opportunity to put all that I was studying into practice. I failed. Like usual, but I sure learned a lot from the whole thing. Just the way it works I guess.

Its just the funniest thing to watch the 1.5 year old and the 2 year old interact and talk to each other. =) Ty talks quite a bit and Keagyn sure tries, although most of his talking is in baby language still =) They sure look at each other and laugh and fight and just go on and on about who knows what. Just a little bit ago, Ty told Keagyn "welcome" and then proceeded to chase after Keagyn for some reply he thought was necessary. Ty still loves to put on anyone and everyone shoes and sock (except his own, of course). Keagyn is just as onry as all of his siblings..but I guess he wouldn't be a Fay if he wasn't =)  Dylan is..Dylan =) He can be the sweetest boy ever or he can be the most onry! He is very full of emotion (not always a bad thing). He loves deeply but also feels the deepest pain (in my opinion anyway). Maddie is growing up way too fast. She loves spending time with her best friend Morgan and Morgan is pretty much a usual around here now. Payton is still quiet for the most part around me, but his smile says so much and can pretty much brighten up the whole room or van lol. Ashlee is getting so big and is learning to read and spell words. She is my big helper and I will certainly miss her when she goes to school next year.

Well, that about sums up my life....  =)  Next post will be....after the wedding. LoL 

Kid Funnies

I don't know about you, but I could certainly use a good laugh today! When the kids say or do something really funny, I usually text the story to their mom or my fiance and then lock the messages so I can't delete them :)  My phone is getting full of messages so I was going through them and deleting the ones I don't need and decided to share the funny ones with you. Of course, to me they are all very funny but I suppose if you don't know the kids very well they are just your average kid story. Anyway, hopefully you will enjoy them and maybe even smile a bit  :)

Oh yah, and they aren't in any particular order..

Dylan (7): "You know how when you are in college some people are just mean and mess with your cars and stuff? Like mostly boys cars.... Well i want to get a Lamborghini but not for my first car. The Lamborghini will probably be like my 6th car. And the one right before that will be a red Ferrari because it's fast and the one before that will be one that has those buttons on the steering wheel that changes the volume and stuff like you can even turn off the radio from the steering wheel! But for my very first car I will probably get a jeep  or a truck because they are tough and kinda fast. Wait! I don't want a fast one cuz in college you mostly wreck all your cars so Ill just get a slow one like a bug or maybe one of the really really little cars, except those are kinda fast too. (Thinks for a few seconds...) Maybe Ill just get a van like yours."        Um...thanks?!  Lol

Ashlee (5): "Berta, what time is it?"  Me: "Ten-o-seven"  Ashlee: "What?! There's no 'o' in numbers!

Maddie (8): *answering a random list of questions about me* "One word to describe you... hmm..very nice. No..thats two words. hmm...I know! AWESOME!"

Dylan after seeing a handicap sign on a bus "I know that bus is for handicap people because handicap people are the only ones that need a stroller to move"     In his defense, wheelchairs are very similar to strollers - you sit in it, get pushed, it had two wheels...  don't you see the similarities?

Ashlee after learning all the rules for the game Sorry, finally realized when she was allowed to slide her piece. Each time she got to slide she gives a nice, loud "WAHOOOOO!"

Ashlee acting as a Dr. "Hey, can you hand me the ABC fruit flavored medicine?"

J.J. (22) talking to my dad about fixing a part on my van:  "Ok, so after its sque-squozen back in...."  really? squozen must be the past tense of squeeze =)

Dylan:  "This picture is of alison and her baby and her husband..no boyfriend..no..well hes like almost her husband. You know, like JJ is almost your husband? And soon you will get married and you know what happens after That!
Me: "um...what happens after we get married?"
Dylan: "you kiss!  and i know you will cuz they tell you that you have to!"  
Ashlee: (laughing)
Dylan: "Dont laugh! you will too some day!
Me: "What about you, Dylan?"
Dylan: "No way. Cuz Im single!"

There have been so many great stories that I have already forgotten because I didn't get a chance to write them down. Of course, that's because most of the really funny stuff happens in the van :)  Anyways, off to watch the kids go sledding.

Trading with JJ....

First of all, I apologize for the quality of the pictures. They were all taken on JJ's phone and when they get loaded on the computer they are tiny and often blurry =(

The story:

Last Saturday (October 27, 2012) JJ and I decided to trade...my heart for his ring =)  He thinks he got the better deal, but I know better. =)

Here is how it happened....

The plans for Saturday were to 1) Go to Helen's house and look at what needs done to her porch and 2) go the the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra Concert at 7:30. Just the typical Saturday. Nothing extra special...or so I thought.  We got up early and went to a few garage sales (which were very depressing!) and then headed towards Helen's house in Des Moines. We got there around 9am and looked at the porch, cleaned her gutters, talked, laughed, played a little piano, etc. It was such an enjoyable time. It was nearly 2 when we left so we went to Joe's Crab Shack for breakfast/lunch. I had never been there before and it was pretty good (kinda crazy though because it was close enough to halloween that people were dressed up in costumes). When we finished there, JJ suggested that we go to Big Creek State Park for the few hours we had before we needed to get ready for the concert. I had mentioned going shopping, but he wanted to go to the park and I readily agreed. If you have read my other posts, you know that I went there on the 8th and when I was there, I found this really sweet spot and had mentioned it to JJ. I was pretty excited to show JJ the spot I had found, but didn't think we would be there for very long...  When we got to the park, we each got out of the car..but then he opened the back door to get something. I was just about ready to ask him what he was doing when a thought hit me...what if he is grabbing a ring?!  (JJ and I had talked about marriage and I knew that he had ordered a ring but that is about it. I had tried to get my brother to tell me if he had asked Dad's permission yet, but Jon just said "how would i know, mom and dad don't tell me things")  Whatever it was JJ was getting, he put in his pocket which basically confirmed my suspicions. At that point I got really nervous. Thoughts of "oh no! am I ready for this?!" started going through my head and so my obvious reaction was to keep JJ walking and not give him a chance to stop (haha..yes, I really did that). After awhile (ok, it was probably only like 10 mins but it felt like forever!) of walking and talking (about who knows what) I decided I was being foolish and we stopped to admire the beauty of God's creation.  You see, with the water levels so low, there was quite a bit of sand showing that usually would not be so we followed the paths as far as we could out into the lake. Then JJ mentioned something about me trying to get Jon to tell me something and I knew it was about to happen..and it did. He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him!!!   All I could think of..and apparently say as well...was "wow, this doesn't really feel like its happening..it doesn't feel real..I don't know what it feels like...wait! yes! Ill marry you!" We both laughed and laughed about it and then walked and walked and talked and yah..I was sooo excited I was like hyper! (I still get kinda excited when I talk about it!)  I did remember to have him take a picture while we were still there.  

About a half hour later we remembered that we needed to get ready for the concert! Of course, I didn't want the people we were going with to be the first to know, so I needed to call all my family as fast as possible! Somehow I managed to call all my family except my grandparents before we had to leave for the concert. I will also admit that I have no clue of anything that happened at the concert. Pretty sure I looked at my ring more than I looked at the musicians. That night I told my roommate, Holly, and she caught my excitement as well. She stayed up with me until 1:30 or so and then I was up for another 2 hours..unable to sleep as I was so excited! I eventually did sleep for a few hours and then waited and waited and waited until it was a decent time to go tell Dana! I actually was still a bit early because she was still sleeping, but I don't think she minded being woke up to a sparkly ring. 

Again, sorry about the picture quality. The ring is absolutely gorgeous! He picked it out (actually, he had it custom made because he couldn't find anything he liked lol) all by himself. I did look at rings online with him one time, but I guess he had already ordered the ring at that point. He seriously thought of everything including making sure that it would be smooth on all sides so it couldn't scratch my kids. Love that guy!

And that, my friends, is our story. =)