Sewing Craze!

I went on a sewing craze the other day and tackled my mending pile. There was a maternity shirt that had been there since I was pregnant with Samantha (almost 2 year ago!!) - pathatic. I also made this cover for our storage/changing table in Sam's room. Her room is finally the way I want it (I think...).

6 shirts, 3 dresses, 3 pants and 4 pair of shorts mended and ready to wear!

Changing table before (ugly holiday storage)- After you'd never know what was under there...

Samatha's girly room. I guess the one thing I haven't done yet is window treatments... maybe this summer.

Storytime, Gym, and Boy!

The past two weeks I've been going to Rigby City Library story time. It has been wonderful! The kids love it and maybe it's just the teacher in me but I don't mind listening to fun stories and singing songs either. It's been such a fun way to get out of the house and get us into more reading.
Brian started Gymnastics last night and had an absolute blast. He's such a big kid-and by big I mean over 95%ile and STRONG! At one point, the instructor had the kids doing an obstacle course. The first obstacle was a huge stair thing and they were supposed to shimmy down the backside of it. Well Brian gets up on top and tries to jump off. Then when they get to the balance beam, Brian starts walking accross just like on the curb but they were only supposed to crawl accross. hehe. I didn't get to be there but Dusty did an excellent job describing it to me and I can't wait to watch him next week.
Samantha is getting SUPER opinionated. If it's not her idea, it doesn't happen! So, I've had to get a lot more creative about giving her choices and letting her help and do things on her own. Sure it gets a little frustrating to hear "NO!" literally all day but it's fun to see more of her personality and independence.
AND!!! We found out we're having a boy! My due date is still set for July 17th and the baby looks great. We took the whole family to the ultrasound. I was hoping it would help Brian understand more about "there's a baby in my tummy". He did great and really enjoyed looking at the screen. I was pretty sure Samantha would have no earthly clue what was going on but she looked at the screen and just started saying, "baby, baby". Wow! We're super excited to welcome a new brother to our family!

February Fun

In February, Dusty's dad called and asked if he wanted to come work for a week so we packed up and headed back to sunny AZ. It was a bit nicer than in Dec. (warmer and a few less people-we love family but everyone together gets a little hectic). Here are some fun pictures from our trip. Dusty actually really enjoyed working with his dad and I had a blast hanging out with mom and the kids. We were outside every day!


Brian and Lily playing "dogs" in the yard. I don't think Brian was actually eating anything.

Samantha and Macie exploring the jungle.

The kids making bubble beards.

The orange vehicle is actually a modified VW bug.

Dusty and dad went to California to buy it while we were there. The 14 hour trip turned into over 30 hours because they had car trouble-go figure.









But meanwhile, Mom and I read the third book in Robyn's series while they were gone. The perfect ending!

Christmas Joy

Here are a few pictures from Christmas. We had "Santa" come early to our house so we didn't have to take presents to AZ. Samantha LOVED her new doll and stroller.

We also celebrated early with my family. All of us kids went together and got mom a modern picture display (The frames hang from the knobs with ribbon). She previously had all our pictures in mismatch frames on her china hutch. With beautiful vaulted ceilings and really empty walls, we figured it was time for a change. She absolutely loved it!

It's a Fillmore family tradition to do the nativity story with felt puppets. We've done it as long as I can remember. So know the grandkids are the main stars. Dusty and Tyler were the Stage (held up a sheet). This is everyone taking a bow after the show.
















We travelled down to AZ for Christmas will all the Allens. Even Dusty's two half sisters and their families got to come from Oregon. It was a blast. This is Smantha playing with Grandma Black's airplane (cousin Macie in the background).

Happy Holidays!

The holiday season was so busy for us that we never sent out a Christmas/New Year's Greeting. We did get a family picture taken but only because Dusty is clever with the timer on our camera. Not to bad for the front yard eh? (The kids are looking at a rock I threw to try to get them to look at the camera, it worked until the rock fell-darn gravity!)

See Me Run

Brian was outta control tonight! I don't know if he had too much sugar, was too excited about his sister's new bed or just plain sick of being inside but he was literally bouncing off the walls. He kept asking me if I would play with him (sweet) while I was making dinner and then doing the dishes. I hate it when I have to keep telling him no. So, when the dishes were finally done, I put on the "Watch Me Sing" CD from Brite Music http://www.britemusic.com and we had a blast running and dancing and pretending to be animals in the front room. I felt pretty silly at times (which is why there are no pictures) but the kids had a blast. You should have seen Brian and Samantha pretending to be ballerinas! I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving!

Sibling Love

Tonight we were doing our typical bedtime routine and I asked (the same as I do every night) Brian if he wanted to give his sister a hug. Well tonight he said yes, and he hugged her, tackled her, tickled her and made her giggle and laugh! Either he's finally learning how to be a little softer or Smantha's finally getting a little tougher but it just made my night.

Here's an awesome picture my brother took of Samantha and Brian on his big bike. I love my kids!