Memorial Day

We took the kids to the park today. Katie has been asking all weekend to go to the park and have a picnic. The Saunders met up with us there.

We are about 3 months apart, but next to me Lisa hardly looks pregnant.
Katie looks too cute on Jason's skateboard.

Jacob had fun at the playground.

Jason had some batting practice with Daddy.

Everyone checking out the water and some floating fish.

Yummy Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

My sister, Lisa found this recipe online and when she made them they were so yummy. I finally tried it mysef to make sure it was foolproof. My homemade cookies always end up a little crunchy, but these cookies are soft because of the secret ingredient...instant vanilla pudding mix. I thought it was worth passing along. It makes a lot, so when we made them we cut the recipe in half. (I took pictures of my cookies so this post would be more interesting, I know, I'm a dork.)

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 cups butter, softened

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 (3.4 oz) packages instant vanilla pudding mix

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 cups semisweet chocolate chips

2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar.

Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla.

Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts.

Drop cookies by rounded spooonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Makes 72 servings.

At the Saunders

Here's just a few pictures from a BBQ at the Saunders house

Jason and Ellie
Ian and Katie
Luke and Jacob
The Prego sisters

Barbecue at Grandma and Grandpa's

Saturday we went to a combination birthday/barbecue/yard work party at Justin's parent's house. We celebrated all the birthdays in April, May and June. Bob and Marsha asked for some help in the yard as their birthday present. I was excluded from yard work for obvious reasons but felt bad I couldn't help out more. The kids had fun with thir cousins and we had a barbecue. Unfortunately, we had record breaking heat that day, I think it was just over 90 degrees.

Jacob had the best time blowing bubbles, and he actually was successful a few times. Although, I think he dripped or spilled most of it.

Katie was more adept at the bubble blowing.

Laci, Katie and Summer pretending to be surfers.

Scott and Justin preparing to take a load to the dump. Apparently, they nearly took a guys head off when unloading this basketball hoop at the dump. It was very awkward because one end had the hoop and backboard and the other end of the pole was filled with concrete.
It doesn't look like it, but Jacob had a fun ride in the paddleboat. Those life jackets are just a bit uncomfortable when your 2 years old. See video of his boat ride below.

Katie was the only one to go in the lake.

Here's the birthday group: Amy, Brittany, Pieper, Me, Marsha and Bob

Got this from my Dad

My Belated Birthday

Well we finally celebrated my birthday. We had intentions of going out the last few weekends but my kidney stone episodes kind of messed things up. So this past Saturday we took the kids and went out to dinner. Nothing fancy, just a mexican restaurant. Then we went to Dairy Queen and picked up an ice cream cake. Yummy!

Justin insisted on putting 32 candles on the cake. We just happen to have 31 pink and 1 green candle in the house.
I got these pretty tulips for Mother's Day.

My cake all ablaze.

Kindergarten Round-up

Katie had kindergarten round-up tonight. She got to ride around the block on a bus, one of the kindergarten teachers read them a story called "The Night Before Kindergarten" and they got a tour of the school.

Semira, Natalie and Katie are in the same Primary class.
They were able to ride the bus together.
Katie was one of the last off the bus.
This is actually one of the kindergarten teachers reading to the kids.

Am I getting older or are teachers getting younger?

Jason the catcher

I know I just posted pictures of Jason's game but he had another game on Friday and got to play catcher. I thought he looked so cute in all that gear I had to post some pictures.

Number 10, just like his mom.
You can kind of recognize that kid behind the mask.

Katie and Jacob had fun playing on this grassy hill during the game.
I tried several times to get a cute picture of Katie but she kept being silly.

I passed ... again!

Well I guess passing 2 kidney stones in one day wasn't enough for me. I passed another one this past weekend. Last time they said I had a stone in each kidney, so when I passed 2 kidney stones I thought that was it. I should have known better when my pain was only in the left side. I woke up on Saturday and my lower back was sore, which isn't out of the ordinary when your pregnant. It didn't go away and eventually I started having pain in my right side. I kept telling Justin it felt like a kidney stone but how could that be since I just passed two the weekend before. Well, the pain finaly became too much and I called my doctor who said to take two Tylenol every 6 hours and drink lots of fluid, or she said I could come to the hospital again. I didn't really want to go to the hospital again but with pain like that Tylenol wasn't going to cut it, and I also started throwing up and wasn't able to keep any fluids down anyway. So after suffering all day at home we finally decided to go to the hospital that night. Long story short, I stayed overnight and passed that darn stone at 1:30 in the morning. Now, I really hope my kidney problems are behind me until I have this baby.
I want to say thank you to Lisa and Brett for taking our kids overnight at the last minute. Brett had a final to take online and Lisa worked that night until 8:30, so I know it wasn't the most convenient timing for them. Thanks so much!

My big belly

Okay, so this isn't the best picture of me. I had Justin take it late last night. But I know a lot of you are wondering how big I look and I've been meaning to get a picture on here for awhile. So here I am in all my pregnant glory!