It's A....

GIRL!!!
We are excited to be welcoming another girl into the family. Let's just hope she's just a little more mellow than our little Beetle (who cut her hair last week :( ). I keep telling Peyton (who of course wanted a boy) that she'll probably be a tomboy like mom and not like all the girly stuff like Bailey. Hope I'm right for, P's sake!

We are...

...Having a baby!!!

We are so excited to be adding a little one to our family. The kids couldn't be more excited!

I am a little more than 12 weeks, baby is due August 6, 2011 which will probably end up being the last week in July due to past experience. We find out the gender next month so stay tuned.

Lots of funny stories to come about the kids and the pregnancy...

Missin these guys lately...

Somethin' about being pregnant really makes it hard not having Dad and especially Mom around. I know they are near us and I love that my kids ask about them often, it makes things a little better.

Birthday Celebration Tradition...

Jackson's birthday has been a very special time over the last 7 years. Sometimes it's a happy day, sometimes a more tearful day, but it's always a day that we are able to remember him and talk about him (more than we do most other days). Here are some pictures of the last 5 years' birthday celebrations. What an amazing opportunity our family has to be able to have such a special brother and son!!

Disneyland 2010

BEWARE: LOTS OF PICTURES AHEAD!

In May we were able to take the kids to Disneyland for a week. We kept it a secret until we got to the hotel, we just kept telling the kids were running errands. I can't believe Dan and I kept a secret that long, we're the type of people that have a hard time keeping anything a secret! We were pretty proud of ourselves but now wish we would have just told the kids when we got to the airport to fly to California. Peyton had multiple breakdowns because he just wanted to play with his friends and was very unsure of the whole thing (what can I say, he's like me...not OK with not knowing the future). I think we may have gotten a better reaction had we told them earlier. We had a great time despite the rough start.

Pictures from the airport and airplane.

Video of us breaking the news.

This pictures was just after we told the kids what our "errands" were, they were fighting over who stood where in the picture.

We decided to stay at a Disney hotel Paradise Pier, It was nice and close to the parks. The weather could have been a little warmer for swimming, but it was nice that we weren't roasting at the parks.

Aunt Kathy met us there and spent the whole time at Disneyland with us. It was so great to see her! I really can't believe it but I don't have any pictures of her with Bailey! That just shows how slowly Bailey takes to warm up to people.

The kids loved the parades! We watched the Celebrate parade 3 times while we were there!

Here are some of Bailey's favorite characters, besides the Disney Princesses of course.

And some pictures of Peyton with his favorites.

More characters...

Some of our favorite rides...

And more silly pictures of the family...

Bailey LOVED meeting all the princesses. Upon meeting each of them she would cover her mouth and act shy, with most of them she asked to see their shoes. She was very unimpressed with Mulan's shoes because they were not very dainty. One of the mornings we were there we went to breakfast at Ariel's Grotto which was so fun and nice because Bailey was able to meet all of the princesses during our Disneyland vacation.

Most of the princesses were very friendly and talkative with Bailey. I love this one of Tiana telling Bailey a story.

Peyton was able to do the Jedi Training Academy. We were pretty nervous that he would get scared and start crying when Darth Vader came up out of the stage (he's just a little tender, gets that from his Dad). He did really well though. The show was different from the last time we saw it, now they have added Darth Maul, who looked scarier then ever! When the Darth's came up out of the stage Peyton got a look of concern on his face and took off running toward us! Just as he was bolting across the floor toward us a Jedi Master clothes lined him and pulled him back to where the other trainees were. After that Peyton seemed OK, just very concerned (no crying at all!) and went on to fight Darth Maul, it was so awesome! I think he was just thinking what the BLEEP, this doesn't look good I better get outta here (see beginning of the video below)!!

Dan being silly in Toon Town

Baby Animal Days 2010...

Every year at Easter time we love to go up to Wellsville for the Baby Animal Days at the American West Heritage Center. We all love to see the baby animals and over the years the festivities have grown.
This year Peyton tried the mutton bustin'! I was so nervous for him, I think I told him at least 10 times "grab on tight and squeeze the wool as tight as you can, oh and wrap your legs around his belly!" He just looked at me like, "yeah, yeah I know Mom, just chill out, I got this". Well, he didn't stay on for very long, I think he thought he knew what was going to happen but then when the sheep took off he got a little freaked out. I told him he'll have to practice for next year by riding bucking Dad.

Bailey rode the pony for the first time and loved it!

Of course the blow up slides are always a hit, at least with Peyton. Bailey usually goes down once then decides she's done.

They both loved holding the ducks and all was well until Bailey decided she was finished and tossed the little thing! After we reprimanded her she swore it had scratched her hand and that's why she jumped, not sure if that really happened but no one was actually injured so all is well.

My Sanity...

Before the chaos of February starts (I'm precepting and Bailey is getting her tonsils out, added to all the school and family stuff, and my new diagnosis of Celiac disease!) I just wanted to share a few things with you. They (in no particular order) are all bringing sanity to my life as I'm in my last semester of nursing school (Yahoo!) and things are CRAZY!

First:
http://downloads.sugardoodle.net/2009FHEBook.doc
This is a great little book of family home evening lessons for the whole year! This has made it so easy to meet our goal of holding FHE each week and my kids LOVE it! We print 2 lessons out every other week then Dan and I take turns giving the lesson. We also had this made by a consignee at Quilted Bear

This has also made it so much fun for the kids. I probably could have made this myself but there was just no time and we loved this one when we found it. The name pieces are stuck on by magnets...perfect!

Second:

and
and especially
They have made this semester and all of nursing school so much better. They all have helped me so much, the kids by being silly and by making me laugh and Dan by doing the things that I haven't been able too, like laundry, cooking, cleaning and entertaining our crazy kids.

Third:
Just before the new year Dan and I started doing what we call "the weekly article". Every Sunday after we get home from church we put Bailey down for a nap and spend some time together as a couple (P does whatever his little heart desires ie plays the Wii). Dan and I switch off every other week being in charge of picking the article. It can be about whatever we want it to be. We usually get the articles from here but have gotten them from the Ensign and other LDS websites. We both read the article then we talk about what we thought about it. This has been such a great thing. In a way it sort of forces an adult conversation which doesn't end up being forced, we are just forced to start it. This leads to great conversations week after week and some good quality ADULT time between Dan and I.

Fourth:
Weekly date night! I have such a hard time relaxing and weekly date night makes me do just that! Each week we plan a date night, sometimes it's just watching a movie after we put the kids to bed but it's time Dan and I are able to spend together, which is what we are shooting for. It's been so nice to spend quality time together so much and has for sure made a difference!

I'm hoping all these things (along with the fact that the end is in sight) will push me though the month of February! Here's to a good month!!

Christmas 2009...

I'm finally getting around to posting about Christmas this year. I started my last semester of nursing school last Monday so things have been quite busy around the Hoover house. We had a great Christmas this year, it was nice to spend some much needed time with the family.
The kids were able to participate in their daycare Christmas program this year. Bailey's class sang Jingle Bells and Peyton's class did the nativity. Bailey was so funny, when her class went up she was singing right along until she suddenly noticed her Meemaw in the audience and yelled "Hi Meemaw!" We were cracking up.

Peyton's part didn't go too well for him. He had been working on his part as one of the three wise men for weeks. He was supposed to say "I brought Muir" but when his teacher got the kids up there she accidentally told one of P's class mates to say his part and told him to say "I brought Gold"! He said it but immediately started crying after because he was so upset and he wanted to bring Muir! Poor guy. His teacher felt so bad and apologized endlessly saying she forgot who was supposed to bring what because she gets bad stage fright. Hopefully it goes better for both of them next year. **I wont post P's video because it's almost 5 minutes long


Santa and Mr. Claus came to visit following the program so the kids were able to remind him of their Christmas requests. Of course Bailey did so from a distance!

We made a trip to Temple Square to see the lights this year. I don't think we've been since Peyton was a baby. The kids had a great time, despite the nippy weather, and were amazed at the Christus, the temple and the beauty of the lights

Christmas morning was much different this year. The kids actually knew what was going on and appreciated it much more! It was fun to see and share in their excitement as Christmas is my most favorite time of year (Christmas...NOT winter!). We always give the kids PJ's on Christmas Eve, a tradition that my family had growing up. They both loved their new jammies. Here are some pictures from the day.

Excuse the crazy morning hair!

Here are some other random pictures that I've taken since the last post and also a video depicting Bailey's obsession with the new Disney movie The Princess and the Frog. A portion of most every day is spend dancing around singing over and over "people gonna come from everywhere cause I'm almost there".

Jumping off the couch to grab the balloon string

LSU Bowl game (Dang you LSU, Win next time!!)

My Baby is 5!!!

Wow, time flies! It seems like just yesterday we were checking into the hospital to have Peyton. We were so excited to have him in our family, nervous but excited. As a baby he was pretty hard. He had reflux and was very fussy because of it. As a toddler he was AMAZING compared to all toddlers I've seen! And as a kid, he's pretty dang good aside from the occasional bout of crying. He's sweet to his sister, who bullies him to no end, and he is always saying nice things too me out of the blue. He has such a tender heart (just like his Dad). He LOVES playing with his friends and asks all day when they will be home from school, when they do get home they play until the sun goes down.

We celebrated his birthday today by going to Chuck E Cheese. Dan took the day off work, it was great to have him there. The kids had a great time playing and it was actually pretty clean. I think we'll be going back soon.

We are so thankful to have P in our family, and hope he has had a great birthday!