Happy Birthday!

Chelsea turns the big 3-0 today. I hijacked her blog for a minute to wish her a happy happy golden birthday. In honor of her birthday today, here are 30 of the many memories i have with her.

1. spraying freesia (bath and body works worst scent ever) in my room
2. playing house with ashley when she was a baby
3. sister swimming...not just us but lauren/alexandra and ashley/meghan
4. early morning seminary and coming home to blow dry our hair
5. trips to old mcdonalds with the kids
6. seeing celine in vegas
7. nauvoo with the parents
8. decorating for your wedding after your shower while the boys played basketball
9. all the time spent at the washington swim club
10. painting karlee's nails and giving her a sucker to keep her still
11. dressing up karlee in all her cute clothes when she was a newborn
12. eating at cheescake every time i came down...adams peanut butter
13. driving to utah for family vacay
14. NC-UT-NC-MO...too much moving
15. summer you lived in utah
16. living in west valley and not knowing a soul
17. driving the sentra and the accord for that matter
18. high school musicals
19. mousey and black rat with Alison G
20. disneyland with the little tykes
21. driving to colorado for brittany's wedding
22. karlee's 1st bday party
23. awesome bangs and early 90s hair
24. shopping trips to raleigh
25. tennis matches
26. all the family pics
27. kicking me out of the bed when we were little
28. waking me up in middle of the night because your nightgown was off
29. all the craft projects
30. all the fun vegas trips

I have so many fun memories of growing up and being a grown up with such a great sister. Happy Golden Birthday! Hope your 30s are the best ever. Love ya! Aubrey

Easter 2012

After one holiday is over Karlee always asks when and what is the next holiday. She was happy to find out we get to do lots of fun things for Easter.  Here are a bunch of random pictures from the last few weeks.

The kids on Easter Sunday in their new clothes.







Karlee hunting for eggs at the playgroup easter egg hunt.

Karson at the playgroup hunt.

dying easter eggs

Family easter picnic in St. George.  The kids weren't too excited to meet the bunny:)

Hunting for eggs in St. George.

Jeff and Karson on the carousel in St. George.

Karlee found her basket in her closet this year.

The kids checking out what the bunny brought.

Aubrey and I made spring wreathes when she was visiting.

Gender Reveal

I have to admit waiting until I was almost 23 weeks to find out the sex of the baby was pretty hard.  I have a ton of friends pregnant right now that are due this summer and it seems like they have all known for weeks what they are having. Eventhough it was hard it was definitely worth it to wait and find out with a gender reveal cake. 

Jeff and I went to the ultrasound 2 weeks ago today.  I told the tech we didn't want to know the sex so she told us to close our eyes when she was looking in that area.  At the end of the appointment she put a picture of the baby and wrote down what it was and stuck it in an envelope that I had already addressed to Aubrey.  She sealed it up so we didn't have a chance to peak and we mailed it off to Salt Lake.  A few days later Aubrey got the envelope and she was the only one who knew what we were having. She then got to work (along with her friend) on this cute bear cake to take down to St. George this past weekend. 

WE ARE BEARY EXCITED FOR THE NEW VOCANA BABY!!

Karlee was so excited to find out if she was having a sister or another brother.  Karson still doesn't really know what is going on.

 It's a BOY!!

It was so fun finding out with Aubrey, my Grandma and Grandpa Mathis, my aunt and cousins, and Ashley, my parents, and Jeff"s parents on skpe and facetime.

We are so excited to have another baby boy!  It will be so great for Karson to have a little buddy to play with.  Eveyone keeps asking me how Karlee is taking it.  As soon as I saw the blue I actually looked at her and wanted to make sure she was okay.  I know she is a little disappointed.  She said, mom I thought it was going to be pink.  She also went up to Aubrey and asked why she didn't make the cake pink.  I think she still thinks Aubrey has something to do with deciding what the baby is.

It didn't take her long to dig right into the cake though!  We have talked about it and she is happy for a baby brother.  When the baby comes she will just love helping and holding the baby that it won't matter if its a boy or girl.

Thanks Aubrey for the fun gender reveal!! 

Crazy Kids

The kids were getting ready for bed the other night and they wanted to wear each other's jammies.  They thought they were so funny! :) Actually Karson didn't want to take the princess shirt off, which makes me a little worried. These kids are crazy and come August I'm sure I'm going to be crazy myself.

He Did It!

Eversince Jeff and I have been married (for 6 1/2 years) he has pretty much been doing some type of school.  He has been working full time and going to school part time almost our whole marrige. We were thrilled right before Karson was born when he finally finshed his bachelors.  Although, it was just weeks later that he started talking about going back for his Masters.  He and I were both sick of him being in school but he knew it was something he had to do.  In August of 2010 he started attending University of Phoenix and working towards an MBA. He has been going to school every Monday night from 6:00-10:00 and doing papers, group projects, and tests the other days of the week. On March 19th, 2012 he attended his last class.  I'm so proud of Jeff for handling school, work, church, and his family for the last several years. Jeff got an A or A- in every class and had perfect attendance for the last year and a half.  It hasn't always been easy but I know it was worth it! The kids, myself, and Jeff are thrilled he is done!!  

St. Patty's Day

Karlee loves holidays and always looks forward to them. She kept asking what we do on St. Patrick's Day and I told her all you do is where green.  It really isn't a holiday to look forward to:) Good thing my friend Meesha had a St. Patrick's Day party on Friday and the little boy Kolby that I watch had his 1st birthday party on Saturday.  Those things helped make the weekend fun for the kids!

19 weeks & waiting...

My friend Ari Anna (who is due one month behind me) said she wanted to see pictures of my belly.  After she said that I realized I hadn't taken any pictures.  I guess with the 3rd baby I will at least get one about half way and one right before I deliver:) I am a little bummed at how fast my belly has gotten big this time. Karlee told me before Christmas and before we had told her that it looked like I had a baby in my tummy!

Now that I'm 19 weeks everyone keeps asking what we are having. I don't know yet! My ultrasound isn't scheduled until March 29th. Jeff even mentioned that maybe we not find out this time since we have one of each.  I just can't do that.  I need to be prepared!  I need to know:) Karlee wants a baby sister so bad.  She just keeps calling the baby a girl because I guess if she calls it a girl then it is a girl. :)

I would love another girl too! I want to pull out all her old dresses, bows, and pink blankets! It would be so fun. Plus, I don't want a disappointed little 3 year old if we find out we are having a boy.

On the other hand how could I not want another one of these? Karson has been such a sweet and mild mannered kid.  He is so snuggly and has the cutest smile!

Except when he is mad, which started a couple months ago.  He is still our sweet boy but he knows what he wants and since he doesn't talk much he doesn't always know how to tell us what he wants. He gets upset a lot but he gets over it fast (which is a good thing about boys.) I think it would be really great for Karson to have a little brother that is close in age to him so they can play and be best buds like my two brothers.

So I just feel really blessed to have these two beautiful kids and no matter what we are having I am going to be so happy! Jeff doesn't care either way and I know Karlee will come around if she finds out it is a brother.  She just loves babies and knowing she gets to help take care of him/her makes her so excited. She prays all the time for the baby to come out of mommy's tummy:)

Now the hard part for me is that eventhough our appointment is two weeks from tomorrow we are still going to wait another week to find out.  My sister Aubrey has been making gender reveal cakes with her friend over the last couple of months and she wants to make one for us.  We are going to see her Easter weekend so she is planning on being the only one who knows what we are having until we cut into the cake to find out what it is.  I think this is so exciting but I don't know if I can wait one more week! I'll keep everyone posted!